emerging thoughts april 11, 2020 · 2020-04-21 · kanteerava stadium, bangalore. apart from...

“Power is gained by sharing knowledge and not hoarding it”

EMERGING THOUGHTS

APRIL 11, 2020

VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 12

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Contents Foreword .......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Update for the day #511|Karnataka Rajyotsava ................................................................................................ 4

Update for the day #512|Influencer Marketing ................................................................................................ 6

Update for the day #513|Mergers Bank of India .............................................................................................. 8

Update for the day #514|India decides not to join World’s largest trade Agreement ....................................... 12

Update for the day #515|Profits for Flipkart, Amazon India are seeming to be a distant dream ..................... 14

Update for the day #516|Green India Mission ............................................................................................ 16

Update for the day #517|PUBG ..................................................................................................................... 19

Update for the day #518|The Monty Hall Puzzle ........................................................................................... 21

Update for the day #519|The Ayodhya verdict and its Battle ......................................................................... 23

Update for the day #520|Adjusted Gross Revenue ......................................................................................... 26

Update for the day #521|Surveillance communism to surveillance capitalism ........................................ 28

Update for the day #522 |Conor McGregor .................................................................................................. 30

Update for the day #523|Tax Terrorism ...................................................................................................... 32

Update for the day #524|The ‘Pitamaha’ of Indian Bar .................................................................................. 34

Update for the day #525|Interesting Facts about India ................................................................................ 36

Update for the day #526|The Power of manifestation .................................................................................... 39

Update for the day #527|Power of gratitude .................................................................................................. 43

Update for the day #528|Paris Agreement ..................................................................................................... 46

Update for the day #529|Oxygen Bar............................................................................................................. 48

Update for the day #530|The Crazy Marketing Ideas .................................................................................... 49

Update for the day #531|The Dynamics of India’s Growth Slowdown............................................................ 52

Update for the day #532|Merchandise Exports from India Scheme ............................................................... 54

Update for the day #533|Reliance Communications limited - From glory to bankruptcy ............................... 56

Update for the day #534|Help Age India ....................................................................................................... 59

Update for the day #535|Service Exports from India Scheme ........................................................................ 62

Update for the day #536|Mastodon ............................................................................................................... 65

Update for the day #537|Coworking Spaces .................................................................................................. 68

Update for the day #538|FASTag Easy to cruise ............................................................................................ 70

Update for the day #539|Oyo Rooms ............................................................................................................. 72

Update for the day #540|Elon Musk .............................................................................................................. 75

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Foreword We, at SURESH & CO. are indeed delighted to release the series “EMERGING THOUGHTS”. This publication is a compilation of constructive thoughts and amusing updates of articled assistants (Interns undergoing Chartered Accountancy course). Our main purpose is to help inculcate the essential habit of reading and update one’s knowledge bank through a continuous series of updates which services to the whole organization every morning giving them a new idea about the happenings in this diverse world. The response we receive from the readers are always overwhelming and this ongoing enlightening ritual has been a wonderful journey as the learning opportunities have never failed to enlighten us. As an organization, our main moto is to enable the articled assistants of Suresh & Co. to think out of box and be updated on recent happenings which not only helps them to enhance their knowledge but also gives them the opportunity to explore things which do not fall under the ambit of their studies. We at SURESH & CO. wanted to share these gems of infant thoughts as conceived by these young minds. It is to be noted that these updates may or may not have been reviewed by any senior or a technical expert and thus these should be used only to kindle thoughts in certain positive direction. Readers are advised to do further research and analysis on the topics which they find interesting. Professional advice should be sought before acting on any of the information contained in it. “Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival”

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Update for the day #511|Karnataka Rajyotsava

Introduction Karnataka Rajyotsava or Kannada Day, also known as Karnataka Formation Day, is celebrated on November 1 of every year. This day is significant as on this day all the kannada language-speaking regions of South India were merged to form the state of Karnataka. On this day, the entire state of Karnataka wears a festive look, with red and yellow Kannada flags decorating streets, houses and institutions. The state flag is also hoisted at offices of political parties and various localities The flag hoisting ceremony is followed by addresses from the Chief Minister and the Governor. The state government also gives out ‘Rajyotsava Awards’ on this day to people who have made great contributions towards the development of Karnataka, the Rajyotsava awards are handed to people in fields ranging from literature, sculpture, painting, folk art, theatre, music, sports, yoga, films, television, Yakshagana, Bayalata, education, journalism, social services, agriculture, environment, medicine etc. A Brief History Aluru Venkata Rao was the first person who dreamt of unifying the State as early as 1905 with the Karnataka Ekikarana movement. India became a republic in 1950 and different provinces were formed in the country on the basis of language spoken in the particular region and this gave birth to the state of Mysore including various places in south India, which were earlier ruled by the kings. On November 1, 1956, Mysore state was merged with all the kannada speaking regions to create unified Kannada-speaking sub national entity. The unified state initially retained the name ‘Mysore’, but the people of North Karnataka did not favour the retention of the name Mysore, so on November 1, 1973 the name of the state was changed to Karnataka. Devaraj Arasu was the chief of the state when this decision was taken. Celebrations This day is celebrated with great joy and vigour all over the state of Karnataka. The entire state wears a festive look on this day as as the red and yellow kannada flags are hoisted at different strategic locations across the state and the Kannada anthem ("Jaya Bharatha Jananiya Tanujate") is chanted. The flag is hoisted at political party offices and several localities even as youth in many areas take out processions on two-wheelers.

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Religion not being a factor, the day is celebrated by people from all the communities. The chief Minister of the state inaugurates the cultural show which is normally held at Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore. Apart from celebrations in Karnataka, it is also observed in other regions of India with significant Kannadiga population like Mumbai, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Chennai. Overseas Kannada organisations also take part in the festivities by arranging cultural events in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Dubai, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland and Germany.

Suresh P

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Update for the day #512|Influencer Marketing Influencer marketing (influence marketing) is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placements from influencers, people and organizations who possess a purported expert level of knowledge and/or social influence in their respective fields. Influencer Marketing is a hybrid of old and new marketing tools, taking the idea of the celebrity endorsement and placing it into a modern-day content-driven marketing campaign. The main differentiator in the case of influencer marketing is that the results of the campaign are collaborations between brands and influencers. Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising where influencers play the role of a potential buyers themselves, or they may be involved as third parties. These third parties can be spotted either within the supply chain (retailers, manufacturers, etc.) or among the so-called value-added influencers (such as journalists, academics, industry analysts, and professional advisers) There is a lack of consensus on what an "influencer" is. One writer defines them as "a range of third parties who exercise influence over the organization and its potential customers." Another defines an influencer as a "third party who significantly shapes the customer's purchasing decision, but may never be accountable for it." Another says influencers are "well-connected, create an impact, have active minds, and are trendsetters," though this set of attributes is explicitly aligned to consumer markets. A good example of influencer marketing would be Youtube celebrity PewDiePie. He teamed up with the makers of a horror film set in the French catacombs under Paris, creating a series of videos in which he underwent challenges in the catacombs. It was pitch-perfect content for PewDiePie’s 27 million subscribers and received nearly double the views as the movie’s trailer. Everybody won. 5 step action for implementing Influencer marketing: 1) Define: Influencer marketing begins with identifying your target customer and understanding who impacts their decisions, how they are discovering, evaluating and deciding to buy merchandise. 2) Discover: Influence is subjective, so there is a need to search for the people who produce and share content that impacts the business or customer’s decision making. 3) Monitor: Listen to your specific influencers and track their content. Know about the topics they write and share, what their audience members are asking for. 4) Act: Start building relationships through simple actions like following and sharing their links, get to know them, plan actions that will enable you to work together. 5) Measure: Keep track of the actions and relationship you are building, how they are converting into concrete events like visits, introductions, mentions etc.

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Influencer marketing is gaining momentum because of the reasons listed below:

• It is more authentic than an advertisement

• It is more cost effective than other marketing channels

• It is an easy way to build trust

• It provides access to large audience

• It is a way to create real time engagement

• It is an easy way to win over a new target audience What are the challenges faced while implementing influencer marketing?

• Identifying the right influencers

• Finding the right engagement tactics

• Measuring the performance of the campaigns

• Keeping track of the influencer’s activity

Few examples of Indian influencers:

• Bhuvan Bam- Youtube influencer, whose ‘BB ki Vines’ Youtube channel plays in the comedy genre has over 10 million subscribers.

• Komal Pandey-Instagram fashion influencer Keerthana U

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Update for the day #513|Mergers Bank of India History of mergers bank in India

Announcing the mega plan of Banks’ merger on Friday August 30, 2019 with an aim to have financially strong Public sector banks in India, the Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman has outlined the Government’s plan to merge 10 public sector banks into four large banks. After the merger, there will be 12 public sector banks in India, including State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. The merger is expected to create fewer and stronger global-sized Banks to boost economic growth. As per the studies conducted until now most of the mergers done in the past, have proved to be an overall success for the weaker banks although there are no concrete parameters to verify this observation. Hence going by the track record merger and acquisition in Indian banking have been fruitful for the Indian Economy. It is but the desire for growth that acts as the fuel not only for an entrepreneur but also for every professional or corporation. This deep desire for growth in terms of customer base, balance sheet and profit has led the organizations engaging in mergers and acquisitions to move ahead and onwards in synergy. History of Mergers in Indian Banking Mergers of banks began in India in the 1960s in order to bail out the weaker banks and protect the customer interests. After that in post liberalization period the quest to create an Indian bank that would be in the league of global giants had been continuing since 1990. Moving on the path of creating one of the largest global banks, the government had approved the merger of five associate banks with SBI in February 2017. Later in March, the Cabinet approved merger of BMB also. Merger & Nationalization during the period from 1961-1969 The period is called pre-nationalization period because in 1969 the government nationalized 14 private banks. As many as 46 mergers took place mostly of private sector banks in order to revive the poorly performing banks which proved to be quite a successful move for the underperforming banks.

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The period from 1969-1991 The period was called post-nationalization period. It saw six private banks being nationalized in 1980. In this period 13 mergers took place mostly between public and private sector banks. The post liberalization period, which stretches from 1991-2015, saw major economic reforms initiated by Government of India. Many new policies were framed. Greater FDI and foreign investment was allowed which saw resurgence in Indian Banking. As many as 22 mergers took place - some to save weaker banks and some for the sake of synergic business growth. Bank Mergers (1993-2004) The merger of Oriental Bank of Commerce with Global Trust bank in 2004 saved the latter after its net worth had wiped off and also handed OBC a million depositors and a decent market in South India. Mergers of Punjab National Bank (PNB) with the then eroded New Bank of India (NBI) in 1993-94 and that of Benaras State Bank Ltd with Bank of Baroda in 2002 also proved to be life saving for the weaker bank. Consolidation of Banks (2015-2017) This phase saw five associates of SBI and Bhartiya Mahila Bank getting merged in SBI. The vision was to have strong banks rather than having large number of banks. This resulted in SBI being one amongst the 50 largest banks in the world. Union Cabinet decided to merge all the remaining five associate banks of State Bank Group with State Bank of India in 2017. After the Parliament passed the merger Bill, the subsidiary banks ceased to exist and the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 and the State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956 were repealed. After the merger, the total customer base of SBI increased to 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and around 60,000 ATMs across the country. Merger of Banks 2018 The government had merged Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda, creating the third-largest bank by loans in the country in 2018. Mega Merger of Banks 2019 With the mega merger announced on August 30, 2019, ten public sectors banks will be reduced into four large banks. The four sets of banks are to be created out of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank merger; Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank merger; Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank merger; and the bank to be created after merger of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India. Six Banks Untouched The mega merger has left untouched six other banks out of which two are national banks and the four have regional focus. The untouched banks are Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Uco Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Punjab & Sind Bank which will continue as separate entities as before

Punjab National Bank to become 2nd Largest Bank Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank merger into Punjab National Bank will create a bank with Rs.17.95 lakh crore business and 11,437 branches.

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4th Largest Bank The merger of Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank will create the fourth largest public sector bank with Rs.15.20 lakh crore business and a branch network of 10,324 5th Largest Bank Merger of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India will create India's fifth largest public sector bank with Rs.14.59 lakh crore business and 9,609 branches. 7th Largest Bank The merger of Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank will create the seventh largest public sector bank with Rs.8.08 lakh crore business having strong branch networks in the south, north and east of the country India has 12 Banks Now The biggest overhaul in public sector banks has left India with only 12 banks now instead of 18 before the decision. According to the Government this decision of making large entities will make the Indian banks capable of meeting the higher funding needs of the economy and will help in acquiring the global scale.

Banking order (Largest to Smallest)

Business in Lakhs of Crore Rupees

Market Share (%)

State Bank of India 52.1 22.5

PNB+OBC+United Bank 17.9 7.7

HDFC Bank 17.5 7.6

Bank of Baroda 16.1 7

Canara + Syndicate Bank 15.2 6.6

Union + Andhta + Corporation Bank 14.6 6.3

ICICI Bank 12.7 5.5

Axis Bank 10.6 4.6

Bank of India 9 3.9

Indian + Allahabad Bank 8.1 3.5

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Rs. 55,000 Crore Recapitalization Plan with Mega Merger The Finance Minister of India has also announced Rs.55,000 Crore recapitalization plan for the banks formed after merger. Besides, recapitalization will also be infused to the six other banks which are not part of this merger.

Banking Recapitalization (Highest to Lowest)

Amount of Recapitalization (Rs. in Crores)

Punjab National Bank 16,000

Union Bank of India 11,700

Bank of Baroda 7,000

Canara Bank 6,500

Indian Overseas Bank 3,800

Central Bank of India 3,300

UCO Bank 2,100

United Bank of India 1,600

Punjab & Sind Bank 750

Nandan M N

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Update for the day #514|India decides not to join World’s largest trade Agreement The Indian government has decided not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which would have been the world’s largest trade pact, over concerns that it could lead to a potential flood of Chinese imports in the country. According to government officials, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attending the RCEP summit in Bangkok, stood firm on India’s concerns in the trade deal not being addressed and decided there cannot be any compromise on core interests. “RCEP agreement does not reflect its original intent. The outcome was not fair or balanced,” they said External affairs ministry’s secretary (East), Vijay Singh Thakur, said that India conveyed its decision not to join the RCEP at the summit on Monday. This, he said, reflects both the government’s assessment of current global situation and of the fairness and balance of the agreement. News18 had on Sunday reported that objections raised by India had dampened hopes of finalising the 16-nation pact, which would have included 30 percent of global GDP and half of the world's people. The Indian government was worried its small businesses would be hit hard by a flood of cheap Chinese goods imports. The RCEP is a trade deal that was under negotiation among 16 countries — the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the six countries with which the ASEAN bloc has free trade agreements (FTA). These included Australia, China, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand. In his speech at the RCEP Summit, Modi said that a lot of things, including global economic and trade scenarios, had changed during seven years of RCEP negotiations that can’t be overlooked. “The present form of the RCEP Agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit and the agreed guiding principles of RCEP,” the PM said, adding that India’s farmers, traders, professionals and industries have stakes in such decisions. “When I measure the RCEP Agreement with respect to the interests of all Indians, I do not get a positive answer. Therefore, neither the Talisman of Gandhiji nor my own conscience permit me to join RCEP,” he further said. India also raised the unviability of having Most Favoured Nation status among member countries as the benefit would then lose its edge in case of nations beyond the bloc. According to officials, India’s stand was a mixture of "pragmatism, the urge to safeguard interests of poor and effort to give an advantage to India’s service sector while not shying away from opening up to global competition across sectors." The negotiations were first launched at the 2012 ASEAN Summit in Cambodia, but had sputtered along since then as India'a cautious stance since then to protect domestic interests had been the major hurdle. It is not clear whether the RCEP agreement would move forward without India.

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There were indications that the rest of the countries may announce a provisional agreement amid trade tensions between the US and China that have pushed economic growth in the region to its lowest in five years. The deal is expected to be signed next year at the summit in Vietnam. Why India Was Wary Under RCEP, India would have been required to eliminate tariffs on 74% of goods from China, Australia and New Zealand, and 90% goods from Japan, South Korea and ASEAN. In the midst of an economic slowdown, India faced the risk of becoming a dumping ground for cheap Chinese goods. India’s position was a difficult one as while it can’t remain isolated, it wanted to make sure that Chinese goods don’t dominate its market. New Delhi, in particular, had sought protections against Chinese agricultural goods. Several voices in India, from the Congress to farmers’ outfits and even the RSS-linked Swadeshi Jagran Manch, had opposed the deal and argued that the Free Trade Agreement with China would be the death knell for India’s manufacturing and production sectors. India already has a $57 billion trade deficit with China, which has been a major cause of concern for policymakers. However, some experts believed that working out an agreement with China within the framework of RCEP would have been the only way to deal with Beijing. A Free Trade Agreement, however, could have been the next big leap after the 1991 Liberalisation policy that India needs to hurtle towards its target of becoming a $5 trillion economy. India has $100 billion trade with five trading partners. But it doesn’t have FTAs with any of them. If we were to double the GDP by 2022, it also needs to double its trade volume with its big trading partners.

Darshan Jain

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Update for the day #515|Profits for Flipkart, Amazon India are seeming to be a distant dream Why are profits for Flipkart, Amazon India are seeming to be a distant dream? Flipkart Flipkart India, the B2B arm of Walmart-owned Flipkart, has registered a higher loss of Rs 3,836.8 crore during 2018-19 as compared to the previous financial year, according to regulatory documents. The unit had posted a loss of Rs 2,063.8 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2018, documents filed by Flipkart India to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Flipkart India's revenue from operations, however, saw a 42.82 percent jump to Rs 30,931 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 21,657.7 crore in the previous financial year According to reports, Flipkart has seen a 40 percent increase in losses to Rs 1,624 crore for the year ending March 31, 2019. The unit saw operating revenues expand by 51 percent to Rs.4,234 crore in 2018-19 as against the previous fiscal. Amazon E-commerce giant Amazon’s main Indian unit spent more than 20% of the revenues it earned on legal and professional expenses, underlining the regulatory complexity of the world’s most competitive online retail markets in the world. Amazon Seller Services spent Rs 1,145 crore on legal professional expenses for the year ended March 2018, 47% higher than the previous year, according to the firm’s filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), sourced from paper.vc. The company continued to spend big on areas such as faster deliveries and marketing to compete with bigger rival Flipkart, now owned by the US retailer Walmart. Deep Discounts and Cashbacks being provided on their payment app (Amazon Pay and Amazon UPI Pay) contribute to the losses of Amazon India. Looking further, Flipkart’s owned subsidiary PhonePe is diversifying its business segment with collaborations with various unicorns. Never-ending losses There seems to be no respite from the red in their books for Flipkart and Amazon India. If one goes by the numbers, e-commerce in India is poised to become a more expensive affair for these stakeholders than it is in the US. The wholesale and marketplace entities at Amazon India cumulatively posted losses of

about ₹5,800 crores in FY19, while at Walmart-owned Flipkart, losses at the corresponding

units stood at about ₹5,460 crore. Both companies have seen their revenue surge, but growth seems to have come at a cost.

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For both Flipkart and Amazon, churning profits seems like a distant dream, at least in the near future. In the early days of e-commerce in India, Amazon, and Flipkart, along with the likes of Snapdeal, Paytm Mall and ShopClues tried attracting consumers with offers and discounts. This was done with the intent to get shoppers into the habit of buying online. Besides, the companies needed to make hefty spend towards building a technology platform, setting up logistics networks and warehouses among other things. However, as e-commerce became mainstream and the likes of Snapdeal and Paytm Mall fell by the wayside, analysts hoped these companies would veer towards profitability. That seems like a distant dream. But the players are still bullish about India. Despite the rising losses, investment in India

continues unabated. In end-October, Amazon infused ₹4,472 crores across its three units—

marketplace, payments, and food retail. The marketplace unit got a bulk of the money, ₹3,400

crores. To date, Amazon has invested at least ₹33,000 crores in the marketplace entity, Amazon Seller Services. The companies continue to invest in strengthening their logistics and supply chain networks, and such spends towards building the infrastructure would need huge upfront expenses. Besides, mobile phones continue to remain the largest category for e-commerce companies. However, it is a low-margin business and doesn’t add significantly to the bottom line. Also, companies need to make significant investments to expand the market.

Varsha s v

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Update for the day #516|Green India Mission National Mission for a Green India or the commonly called Green India Mission (GIM), is one of the eight Missions outlined under India’s action plan for addressing the challenge of climate change -the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). GIM is aimed at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s diminishing forest cover and responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures. The mission has the broad objective of both increasing the forest and tree cover by 5 million ha, as well as increasing the quality of the existing forest and tree cover in another 5 million ha of forest/ non forest lands in 10 years. The Mission proposes a holistic view of greening and focuses not on carbon sequestration targets alone, but also, on multiple ecosystem services, especially, biodiversity, water, biomass etc., along with provisioning services like fuel, fodder, timber and non-timber forest produces. It will also increase options of forest-based livelihood of households living in the fringe of those landscapes where the Mission is implemented. GIM-Goals The Mission goals are as listed below:

• To increase forest/tree cover to the extent of 5 million hectares (mha) and improve quality of forest/tree cover on another 5 mha of forest/non-forest lands; Separate sub-targets exist for different forest types and ecosystems (eg. Wetland, grassland, dense forest etc.). For instance,

• Improvement in quality of forest cover and ecosystem services of forests /non-forests, including moderately dense, open forests, degraded grassland and wetlands (5 m ha). The sub-targets are:

• Moderately dense forest cover, but showing degradation: 1.5 m ha

• Eco-restoration of degraded open forests: 3 m ha

• Restoration of Grasslands: 0.4 m ha

• Restoration of Wetlands: 0.10 m ha

• Eco-restoration/afforestation of scrub, shifting cultivation areas, cold deserts, mangroves, ravines and abandoned mining areas (1.8 m ha) with separate sub –targets for each one of those.

• Improvement in forest and tree cover in urban/peri-urban lands (0.20 m ha)

• Improvement in forest and tree cover on marginal agricultural lands/fallows and other non-forest lands under agro-forestry / social forestry (3 m ha)

• To improve/enhance eco-system services like carbon sequestration and storage (in forests and other ecosystems), hydrological services and biodiversity; along with provisioning services like fuel, fodder, and timber and non-timber forest produces (Minor forest produces or MFPs) etc which are expected to result from the treatment of 10 m ha;

• To increase forest-based livelihood income for about 3 million households in and around these forest areas; and

• Enhanced annual CO2 sequestration by 50 to 60 million tonnes in the year 2020.

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Approach of GIM It also aims at convergence with complementary schemes and programmes for better coordination in developing forests and their fringe areas in a holistic and sustainable manner. For instance, Green India mission has issued the Convergence Guidelines of GIM with the Rural employment Guarantee Scheme –Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Convergence guidelines of GIM with Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) for compensatory afforestation have been framed to ensure a synergized approach thereby contributing to ecological security in the context of climate change, which is required to address the challenges being faced in environment, forest and wildlife sectors. Efforts are on to finalize convergence guidelines with other complimentary schemes to set out the approach for coordination at field level. It acknowledges the influence and primacy that forests have on environmental amelioration though climate change mitigation, food security, water security, biodiversity conservation and livelihood security of forest dependent communities. Background Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had launched a related project in January 1985 to cover 5 m ha of waste land to be brought under green cover every year. However, country fell short of achieving this ambitious objective. With the emergence of United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Indian Government’s stand on climate change has been in accordance with the Principles of Equity and the Common but Differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities as enshrined in the UNFCCC. The current approach to climate change is fully anchored in the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan. India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was released on 30 June 2008 to outline India’s strategy to meet the challenge of Climate Change and enhance the ecological sustainability of India’s development path. The NAPCC consist of 8 missions in specific areas i.e. Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-system, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic knowledge for Climate Change which include assessment of the impact of climate change and actions needed to address climate change. The Draft Green India Mission document was put on website for comments on 23 May 2010. Seven Regional Consultations were organized over a month and a half from 10 June 2010 to 15 July 2010 in Guwahati, Dehradun, Pune, Bhopal, Jaipur, Vizag and Mysore. Over 1450 people participated in the consultations and thousands of mails were received from Panchayats, community groups, academia, researchers, schools, government agencies, private sector, media and concerned citizens. GIM’s launch was supposed to coincide with the starting of the 12th five-year plan in 2012. But, owing to financial delays the mission was finally launched in 2015.

Governance and Implementation of GIM At the national level, the Mission is set up as an autonomous Society under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to facilitate smooth implementation of the Mission. The Governing Council of the Society, chaired by the Minister for Environment and Forests, Government of India and drawing upon cross-sectoral representation, will provide overall guidance.

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The National Executive Council (NEC) chaired by the Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forest has the overall responsibility for the Mission. NEC approves the Perspective Plans & Annual Plan of Operations (APOs) submitted by States. The Mission has the potential to develop about one lakh skilled local community youth who would provide support in community-based forest conservation, community livelihood enhancement and change monitoring, etc. These youth as Green Volunteers will act as a bridge between the community and the implementing agencies such as Forest Department. Any policy framed no matter how beautifully will succeed in achieving its objectives only with full support of the citizens. Therefore, I plead each one of you to do your bit and contribute to the environment in every possible way. Each one of us can make a difference. Together we can make a change.

Saketh P

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Update for the day #517|PUBG PUBG “PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS" Know Your Audience to Dominate Market When video game enthusiasts talk about e-sport games, they reference games that feature a team of players trying to eliminate another team within a virtual map or complete an objective. Popular e-sports games of this decade include: “Counter-Strike,” “DOTA,” and “StarCraft.” These games are popular because they have specific objectives and cater to a niche target audience. With the positive buzz surrounding the emergence of e-sports games, it has come as a shock these video games had a significant drop in market share over the past 12 months. Why the sudden change? An early release video game titled “PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS” (PUBG) came to market seemingly out of thin air and became a sensation overnight due to word of mouth in the gaming community.

Timing Is Everything PUBG was released in March 2017 via Steam’s early access program to massive financial success and sold more than two million copies by the end of April. By September 2017, the game sold more than 20 million copies. There were many factors that led to PUBG’s success, but a major contributor was the concept. The game’s concept was important, but the underrated aspect of this game’s viral success and the marketing lesson to learn was the timing is everything. From 2015 to 2016, the popularity of e-sports games was beginning to wane. By March 2017, e-sports viewership numbers were down nearly 45 percent from the previous year. (from more than 490,000 peak viewers in 2016 to 220,000 in 2017.) PUBG was not only released at a time when viewers were leaving the game’s genre, but popular players were leaving too. Industry influencers with gamer names Shroud and Summit1g are talented e-sport gamers and two of the most popular streamers on twitch.tv, the gaming community’s platform of choice to view e-sports games. These high-profile gamers were asked to play PUBG’s early release, which also made them among the first to adopt it as their new game of choice. Having tens of thousands of viewers watching PUBG’s early release game played by industry influencers no doubt contributed to the success the game enjoyed.

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From a marketing standpoint, PUBG not only hit its target market in a big way by building a polished version of a trending game genre but also timed its release at the perfect time to capitalize on waning consumer interest in what would have been its biggest competitors and the largest barrier to entry only a year ago. In May PUBG’s global revenue stood at $146 million, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. India revenue number pales in comparison to other geographies but industry watchers believe getting money out of Indian pockets is a net positive for the industry. PUBG Mobile is presently the highest-grossing app in the gaming category globally and in India, a marker of mainstream approval.

What to Learn It can be a good idea to jump on a trend as it is becoming popular, and being the trendsetter is can create a cornerstone in the market. However, sometimes waiting for the right moment to capitalize in an established market can lead to more success and longevity as a brand. In PUBG’s case, it was developed by the creator of its genre, with a high enough budget to create the best possible project, and at the right release timing, became the biggest smash hit in gaming history.

Kuldeep N

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Update for the day #518|The Monty Hall Puzzle Let's imagine participating in a game show and the host asks you to choose one among those three doors: Behind one of the doors is the star prize (a brand-new car) and behind the other two doors are 2 goats. (You have no idea behind which door is the car but the host knows.) When the host asks you to make a choice- which door would you choose? Suppose you choose to open Door 1 and the host who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door say Door No. 2 which has a goat behind it. Now having only 2 remaining doors (Door 1 and 3), the host asks you if you wanna switch to the other door i.e., change your selection (From door 1 to Door 3) or still stick to your previous choice of opening door 1? What would you do? You may be of the view that irrespective of whether you change your selection or not, the odds of winning the car is the same and the host is just trying to play with you psychologically. But that's not true. And this is where I would like to introduce to you the concept of "Variable Change" The right thing to do in the second selection would always be to swap (i.e., from Door 1 to Door 3). Let's understand why. It is pure statistics. When you were originally asked to make a choice, the probability of winning the car was 33.33% which means your chances of winning a goat was 66.66%. But while making the second choice and if switched, you have a 66.66% chance of winning the car, while if you stick to their initial choice, you have only a 33.33% chance of picking the car. This means that your chance of picking a car is higher if you swap. In the second chance, you thought the chances of winning a car were 50/50? Well, most people come to the conclusion that switching does not matter because there are two unopened doors and one car and that it is a 50/50 choice. This would be true if the host opens a door randomly, but that is not the case; the door opened depends on the player's initial choice, so the assumption of independence does not hold. To make things clearer, try the following permutations in the solutions presented which shows the three possible arrangements of one car and two goats behind three doors and the result of staying or switching after initially picking door 1 in each case:

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Remember- The host must always open a door that was not picked by the you. The host must always open a door to reveal a goat and never the car. The host must always offer the chance to switch between the originally chosen door and the remaining closed door.

Behind door 1

Behind door 2

Behind door 3

Result if staying at door #1

Result if switching to the door offered

Goat Goat Car Wins goat Wins car

Goat Car Goat Wins goat Wins car

Car Goat Goat Wins car Wins goat

The above example clearly proves that a player who stays with the initial choice wins in only one out of three of these equally likely possibilities, while a player who switches wins in two out of three. Simran Jain

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Update for the day #519|The Ayodhya verdict and its Battle The Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark verdict permitting the construction of Ram temple at the disputed site of Ayodhya. Let us delve into the background of this dispute The Ayodhya dispute or Rām Janmabhoomi - Bābrī Masjid Land Title Dispute is centered on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama, the history and location of the Babri Masjid at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque. The Babri Masjid was destroyed during a political rally which turned into a riot on 6 December 1992. A subsequent land title case was lodged in the Allahabad High Court, the verdict of which was pronounced on 30 September 2010. In the judgment, the three judges of the Allahabad High Court ruled that the 2.77 acres (1.12 ha) of Ayodhya land be divided into three parts, with 1⁄3 going to the Ram Lalla or Infant Rama represented by the Hindu Maha Sabha, 1⁄3 going to the Sunni Waqf Board and the remaining 1⁄3 going to Nirmohi Akhara. The judgment affirmed that the disputed land was the birthplace of Rama as per the faith and belief of Hindus and that the Babri Masjid was built after the demolition of a Hindu temple, noting that it wasn't built in accordance with the tenets of Islam. The five judges Supreme Court bench heard the title dispute cases from August to October 2019. On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give alternate 5-acre land to Sunni Waqf Board to build the mosque. Beginning of Dispute The first recorded instances of religious violence in Ayodhya occurred in the 1850s over a nearby mosque at Hanuman Garhi. The Babri mosque was attacked by Hindus in the process. Since then, local Hindu groups made occasional demands that they should have the possession of the site and that they should be allowed to build a temple on the site, all of which were denied by the colonial government. In 1946, an offshoot of the Hindu Mahasabha called Akhil Bharatiya Ramayana Mahasabha (ABRM) started an agitation for the possession of the site. In 1949, Sant Digvijay Nath of Gorakhnath Math joined the ABRM and organized a 9-day continuous recitation of Ramcharit Manas, at the end of which the Hindu activists broke into the mosque and placed idols of Rama and Sita inside. Demolition of Babri Mosque In the 1980s, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), belonging to the mainstream Hindu nationalist family 'Sangh Parivar' launched a new movement to "reclaim" the site for Hindus and to erect a temple dedicated to the infant Rama (Ramlala) at this spot. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), formed in 1980 from the remnants of the Jana Sangh became the political face of the campaign. In 1986, a district judge ruled that the gates would be reopened and Hindus permitted to worship inside, providing a major boost to the movement.

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In September 1990, BJP leader L. K. Advani began a "rath yatra" (pilgrimage procession) to Ayodhya in order to generate support for the movement. They were stopped by the Uttar Pradesh police and the paramilitary forces, resulting in a pitched battle in which several kar sevaks were killed. Accusing the central government led by V.P. Singh of being weak, the BJP withdrew its support, necessitating fresh elections. In these elections, the BJP won a majority in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly increased its share of seats in the Lok Sabha. Riots of 1992 On 6 December 1992, the VHP and its associates, including the BJP, organized a rally involving 150,000 VHP and BJP kar sevaks at the site of the mosque. The ceremonies included speeches by the BJP leaders such as Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Uma Bharti. The mob grew restive through the duration of the speeches and stormed the mosque shortly afternoon. The mosque was attacked with a number of improvised tools and brought to the ground in a few hours. More than 2000 people were killed in the riots following the demolition. Riots broke out in many major Indian cities including Mumbai, Bhopal, Delhi, and Hyderabad. Post Riots of 1992 On 16 December 1992, the Liberhan Commission was set up by the Government of India to probe the circumstances that led to the demolition of the Babri Mosque. It was the longest-running commission in India's history with several extensions granted by various governments. The report found a number of people culpable in the demolition, including BJP leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Uma Bharti and Vijayaraje Scindia. Many Muslim organizations have continued to express outrage at the destruction of the disputed structure. In July 2005, terrorists attacked the makeshift temple at the site of the destroyed mosque. In 2007, M. N. Gopal Das, the then head of the Ram temple, received phone calls making threats against his life. Many terror attacks by banned jihadi outfits like Indian Mujahideen cited demolition of the Babri Mosque as an excuse for terrorist attacks. Summary of Verdict The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously pronounced its verdict on 9 November 2019. The judgment can be summarised as follows:

• The Court ordered the Government of India to create a trust to build a temple and a Board of Trustees within three months. The disputed land will be owned by the Government of India and subsequently transferred to the Trust after its formation.

• The Court ordered the entire disputed land of area of 2.77 acres to be allocated for the construction of a temple while an alternative piece of land of area of 5 acres be allocated to the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque within Ayodhya.

• The court ruled that the 2010 Allahabad High Court's division of the disputed land was incorrect.

• The court ruled that the Demolition of the Babri Masjid and the 1949 desecration of the Babri Masjid were illegal.

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• The court observed that archaeological evidence from the Archaeological Survey of India shows that the Babri Masjid was constructed on a Hindu temple. However, it said that the evidence could not establish whether a temple was demolished to build the mosque. The court said that Muslims parties, including the UP Sunni Waqf Board, failed to establish exclusive possession of disputed land.

• The court ruled that the suit filed by Nirmohi Akhara was not maintainable and it had no shebait rights. However, the court ruled that Nirmohi Akhara should be given appropriate representation in the Board of Trustees that will be created by the Government of India.

▪ The court rejected the claim made by Shia Waqf Board against the Sunni Waqf Board for the ownership of the Babri Masjid.

Suhas N

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Update for the day #520|Adjusted Gross Revenue Telecom operators are required to pay license fee and spectrum charges in the form of revenue share to the Government. The revenue amount used to calculate the revenue share is known as Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). While the Department of Telecom wants income earned by the operators from things such as bank deposits included as AGR, operators believe that the income earned from telecom services should only be counted. The definition of AGR has been a long-standing issue between the DoT and the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), in particular, on some items that the TSPs strongly believe should not be included while calculating AGR since these are not part of the core telecommunications services. The Judgement The Supreme Court ruled that Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) for telcos should include all revenue accrued to carriers, including that from noncore activities, backing the telecom department’s stance in a 16-year-old case. But it left the authorities in a bind over how to recover more than Rs 1.3 lakh crore in dues, penalties and interest from a sector already under financial stress without causing further damage. While the industry has paid already 85 per cent of the demand raised by the DoT, the remaining 15 per cent has stayed disputed for a long time with the TSPs getting favorable judgments in various legal forums, including TDSAT, High Courts and even Supreme Court. The latest petition by the DoT was heard in the Supreme Court, wherein the DoT is demanding

interest, penalty and interest on penalty on the outstanding amount. These amount to ₹92,641

crore (disputed actual demand is ₹23,189 crore, levy of Interest of ₹41,650 crore, penalty of

₹10,923 crore and interest on penalty of ₹16,878 crore), something the industry has been disputing and believes that the demand is unjust given previous judgments, where the same was held in favor of the industry by TDSAT on two occasions (2007 and 2015). The Supreme Court in 2011 also remanded the matter back to the TDSAT for interpretation of the heads and computation thereof. Since then there have been multiple appeals and verdicts by the DoT and the industry/TSPs in various forums including High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. All the appeals against the TDSAT order dated April 23, 2015 (both Union and the operators) was heard before the Bench of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice S Abdul and Justice MR Shah. The Final Verdict was delivered on 24th of October 2019, stating that AGR has to include all the incomes earned by the telecom operator.

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Impact on the Industry “The government is in a fix and the problems are plenty. If we go ahead and demand the AGR dues, most will not be able to pay,” a senior government official told ET, asking not to be named. “If we increase the payment period, then it will increase the interest and penalties.” Of the 15 companies that had been served demands for license fees worth a total of more than Rs 92,000 crore and spectrum usage charges (SUC) of a combined Rs 41,000 crore, only three — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio — are operating. The rest have either exited or are undergoing bankruptcy proceedings such as Aircel and Reliance Communications. Vodafone Idea, facing a demand of more than Rs 39,000 crore as per Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT’s) court filings, will be the worst affected as it copes with falling revenue, a shrinking user base and quarterly losses of nearly Rs 5,000 crore combined with debt of more than Rs 99,000 crore, analysts said. Shares plunged to a 52-week low before closing 23.4% down at Rs 4.33 on the BSE. By some industry estimates, the liability for Vodafone Idea could be even higher at Rs 58,000 crore and for Bharti Airtel at Rs 43,000 crore, including license fee, penalties, interest, compounded interest and SUC. The official cited above said that the government itself has admitted that the sector is under stress with debt of more than Rs 7 lakh crore and a 25% fall in AGR in the two years to March 31. “Operators have asked for some relief and we are working on that but now the problem is much bigger,” he said. The government will have to take quick action, otherwise “one of the telcos” will be in serious distress, which may further change the industry structure, causing serious problems. Simha S

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Update for the day #521|Surveillance communism to surveillance capitalism Thirty years ago, the Berlin Wall “fell” unexpectedly when East Germany’s communist government lost control over its citizens’ freedom to travel. Soon after the East Germans gained the liberty to leave and the opportunity to criticize their government without fear of reprisals, the government was pushed to hold free elections. All this presaged the unraveling of the German Democratic Republic and, within a few more years, of Soviet Communism itself. Having acquired the freedom to protest openly, one of the first things the East Germans did was to descend upon the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security, universally known by its German acronym, the Stasi. The Stasi was the “sword and shield of the party,” as its motto had it, and was widely hated for its frightening control over people’s lives. Everyone knew, or at least thought, that the Stasi was spying on ordinary East Germans all the time, and that they had to constantly be on their guard about what they could say and where. To many people, the secret police were the essence of Communist rule. When they stormed the Stasi’s headquarters in the Normannenstrasse (another nickname for the Stasi), they discovered miles of files on individuals who were the subjects of the Stasi’s attention. At first there was much destruction of files, but it then dawned on the outraged citizens that they would want to understand what the Stasi had done during the forty years of the GDR(also known as East Germany)’s existence and that they would need the files in order to do so. This led to the creation of an agency charged with helping people sort through the files and hence to “come to terms with the past.” The Stasi agency was first headed by the charismatic pastor and dissident Joachim Gauck, who would later become President of the re-united Federal Republic of Germany. People were astonished at how much information had been compiled, and how trivial so much of it seemed to be. The Stasi seemed to be drowning in information, a great deal of which was merely the product of the “informal collaborators’” (spies’) need to appear to be carrying out their duties and thus to avoid their own trouble with the Stasi. Moreover, given the old-fashioned methods being used, much of the information gathered could not be used to “connect the dots” where doing so would have made possible an understanding of possible “subversive” activity. Fast-forward to the present. Surveillance Communism has vanished and been replaced by surveillance capitalism. (China might be regarded as an exception, but despite its insistence that its system is “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” it might best be characterized as a form of “authoritarian capitalism.”) Now, instead of “information,” we have “data.” Facial recognition technologies make possible automated identification of random individuals whose relationships to one another can be instantaneously investigated by electronic means. Lightning-fast computers have replaced handwritten or typed files with electronic record-keeping of a great variety of kinds. Governments have exponentially greater abilities to track people if they choose to do so, and whether they do so is one of the central debates of our time.

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Yet the power of governments pales in comparison to that of private companies. These companies—above all Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, but a host of other firms as well—take our “data exhaust” and analyze, package, and sell it to advertisers and others who make it their business to know our preferences and desires. These private companies are in fact vastly more capable of manipulating and using “Big Data” than the US government. Some say Facebook is “too big to fight,” and has become more powerful than any state in its control over information. Although this is often forgotten as these digital technologies have become more familiar and routine, every keystroke—and even such seeming ephemera as the amount of time we hover over an advertisement—is a source of valuable data for these companies. With this data at their disposal, they have become able to micro-target the precise moment when they believe an ad will be most effective. They are also increasingly able to anticipate our wants and desires. They can target advertising in accordance with their data-driven understanding of what we have purchased in the past and presumably will want in the future. Part of the data we generate for the surveillance capitalist firms is a product of our necessary, work-related use of digital technologies, or our efforts to keep in touch with others. But part of it is generated by the optional activity of “self-surveillance.” This is sometimes referred to as “the quantified self” and has been much associated with the efforts of governments to off-load financial and other responsibilities onto the beneficiaries themselves. The spread of self-surveillance has been facilitated by such technologies as the Fitbit, a wearable device that tracks a person’s activities that are related to “fitness.” Increasingly, then, it’s not just states and companies that observe our every action; we also watch ourselves more and more, hoping that doing so will make us more fit, better rested, or perhaps more productive and wealthier. Then again, like all forms of spying, they may just make us more anxious. Surveillance Communism could lead to real prisons but mostly instilled fears about stepping over a party-defined line. Surveillance capitalism, less overtly intrusive, makes our online activities a source of data that private firms harvest for their profit. Self-surveillance, finally, transforms our daily activities into a source of data that we train on ourselves. As we ponder the significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall thirty years ago, one wonders whether different forms of surveillance constitute the hidden logic of our society "We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from governments."- Ashrith ARK

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Update for the day #522 |Conor McGregor RISE OF THE NOTORIOUS Conor Anthony McGregor was born to parents Tony and Margaret McGregor on July 14, 1988, in Dublin, Ireland. Raised in the rough working-class section of Crumlin, McGregor enjoyed playing soccer as a boy before finding an outlet for his aggression in boxing. He was a member of the Crumlin Boxing Club from age 11 to 17, winning a Dublin Novice Championship during that time. In his later teen years, McGregor began training in the still little-known sport of mixed martial arts, under John Kavanagh. He also found a job as an apprentice plumber but elected to forego the profession, over his parents' objections, to pursue his dream of becoming a professional fighter. Métier McGregor made his professional debut on March 8, 2008, for the London-based promotion Cage Warriors, winning by TKO. He lost two of his first six fights before reeling off an impressive winning streak, claiming both the featherweight championship and the lightweight championship in 2012. Ultimate Fighting Championship Signed by UFC President Dana White in early 2013, McGregor impressed with a first-round knockout in his April debut for the organization. He continued his winning ways through July 2015, when he defeated Chad Mendes for the interim featherweight title. That December, he knocked out Jose Aldo in a record 13 seconds to unify the featherweight title. When lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of their planned March 2016 title bout due to injury, McGregor jumped one more weight class to fight Nate Diaz at 170 pounds. The Irishman was eventually worn down by the bigger Diaz before submitting to a chokehold, ending his 15-match winning streak. In their much-anticipated rematch that August, McGregor again jumped out to a fast start before the tide turned. This time he rebounded to win the crucial fourth round and held on through Diaz's desperate late flurry to win the instant classic by majority decision. Dropping back to the more comfortable lightweight class, McGregor delivered another impressive performance with a second-round TKO of Eddie Alvarez in November 2016, simultaneously making him the UFC's lightweight and featherweight champions. McGregor's relationship with the UFC became strained when his inactivity in the octagon prompted its president to strip the fighter of his featherweight and lightweight titles by early 2018. McGregor made his long-awaited return in October 2018, nearly two years after his last UFC fight, to challenge the new lightweight champ, Khabib Nurmagomedov. Right after Nurmagomedov's fourth-round win, the two sides erupted in a post-match brawl, resulting in a six-month suspension for mc geroger

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FAMILY Those close to McGregor know the power behind the UFC throne lies in the hands of long-time girlfriend Dee Devlin. Also, from Dublin, Devlin reportedly met McGregor at a nightclub in 2008, when his MMA career was getting off the ground. Although he was on welfare at the time—and remained so for many years after—she stuck with him through the unpredictable early stages of his career, eventually quitting her job as a secretary to travel with the fighter when he began achieving success. A vital member of Team McGregor, Devlin helps to train the champ, cooks his meals and generally provides a soothing presence. She also added the invaluable role of mother on May 5, 2017, when she gave birth to Conor Jack McGregor Jr. REBOUND Conor McGregor rose from a tough neighborhood to become the biggest star in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). After joining the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2013, "The Notorious" unified the featherweight division with his title win in 2015, and the following year he became a two-division champion by winning the lightweight title. McGregor also famously fought boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017. He abruptly retired from MMA in March 2019, before announcing he would return the following January. Manoj kumar Y

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Update for the day #523|Tax Terrorism

Ever since CCD founder VG Siddhartha had alleged harassment from lenders and tax authorities in a letter purportedly written by him, business fraternity all across the nation has responded overwhelmingly, with one of them replacing the vision of “Ease of doing business” with “Ease of ending business”. Tax Terrorism being the frequently used word in this respect, here's a briefing about it. "Tax Terrorism", a term coined by the Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, means putting illegal or extra-legal pressure on the taxpayers to extract duty or deny refund which is not due or due only after following due process of law. For a layman, this term implies a situation where the taxman uses his powers to fleece tax (or rather, extract more than what is due) from an honest taxpayer. This may be either in the form of unjust and inequitable tax laws or by enforcing the tax law on the general public in a harsh manner, which generally happens when the taxman views every transaction with suspect. Ex: To deny all refunds or pass adverse adjudication orders in the name of realising target of revenue. Some other ways of this can be by having an Ex Post Facto Law, on an earlier date to include the organizations in the Tax Net. Reasons:

• Domestic tax laws allow the authorities to issue ‘demand notices’ even to people who have paid all their taxes for the year and have dutifully filed their returns.

• Complexity and multiplicity of tax laws (both direct and indirect) creates confusion opening door for both tax evasion and high handedness by tax officials.

• Indian tax laws have been more oriented towards maximising collection by increasing tax assessments, rather than looking towards the needs of the taxpayers.

• Exemption based tax structure adds complexity and provides a breeding ground for tax terrorism.

• Tax Inspectors are prone to enquiries in possible cases of under assessments. Consequently, they issue tax notices, just to be on the safe side.

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Measures to be taken:

• Board should be made to have some respect for tribunal's order. Every order of tribunal favourable to the assesses should not be challenged. The percentage of victory in appeal is abysmally dismal.

• Law of unjust enrichment should be abolished as it is a convenient tool to deny refund and thus send the taxpayers to desperation.

• Improved grievances and redressal system which would help small players in the market and big corporate houses to have a better mechanism to have their problems and disputes solved.

• Pursue international efforts like OECD's base erosion and profit shifting agreements, within the G20 to address larger problems which require multilateral agreements.

Chaitrashree G

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Update for the day #524|The ‘Pitamaha’ of Indian Bar Legal luminary and two-time Attorney General of India K Parasaran was the lead counsel for the Hindu parties in temple-mosque land dispute in Ayodhya and he successfully argued for possession of the entire disputed land in the Supreme Court in favor of the deity "Ram Lalla Virajman".

Career Born in Tamil Nadu's Srirangam in 1927, Parasaran's father Kesava Aiyengar was a lawyer and Vedic scholar who practiced at the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court. Parasaran's three sons, Mohan, Satish and Balaji, are also lawyers. Mohan Parasaran served as the Solicitor General in the UPA-II government and now the fourth generation of the Parasarans are also in the legal profession, doyen of constitutional law, Parasaran also boasts of deep knowledge of Hinduism.He started practicing in the supreme court since 1958. When he started his arguments in the Supreme Court, he describes, the significance of Ram Janmabhoomi for Hindus thus: “Janani Janma-bhoomi-scha swargadapi gariyasi (mother and motherland are greater than the heavens above).”An erudite Hindu scholar who often quoted from Hindu scriptures in his arguments, Parasaran was referred to as the "Pitamaha" of the India Bar by Supreme Court judge and former chief justice of Madras High Court Sanjay Kishan Kaul for his contribution to the law without compromising with his 'dharma'. The Point to be noted was even though the opposite lawyer Rajeev Dhavan tore up pages, calling the Parasarans argument foolish, he not at all lost cool. Even on being asked by CJI to sit and argue he politely declined and said, “My Lord, you are very kind. But it has been a tradition that one must get up and put forth the arguments. I hold this tradition very dear.” The typical in-depth knowledge of K Parasaran is revealed during the initial questioning by the apex court "Whether the birth place can be held to be juristical person. So far as Idol of deities are considered, they have been held as a juristic person, said the bench comprising of Justice SA Bobde, DY chandra chud and Abdul Nazeer. Responding to the query Parasaran told "In Hindu religion, idols are not necessary for place of holy worship, Rivers and sun are also worshiped, hence birth place which is a "LAND" also is sacred and worshiped. During the Emergency, he was the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu and appointed as the Solicitor General of India in 1980. He served as Attorney General of India from 1983 to 1989.In 1985, he had advised the government as the Solicitor General, against acting on the show-cause notice issued to demolish the Indian Express building as it was legally untenable. When the Indira Gandhi government ignored his opinion, he refused to defend the government in court and offered to resign. Despite this, he was promoted as the Attorney General by the government. "Senior Parasaran", as he is referred to in legal circles, had also come to the rescue of Priyanka Gandhi in a family court at Tis Hazari in 1997. In the case, a man, later found mentally unstable, had petitioned the court, days before she was to get married to Robert Vadra, claiming that Priyanka was already married to him.

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Former prime minister A B Vajpayee had also appointed him as a member of the drafting and editorial committee tasked with reviewing the working of the Constitution. The Vajpayee-led NDA government awarded him the Padma Bhushan and the Manmohan Singh led UPA-1 government awarded him the Padma Vibhushan and nominated him to the Upper House. He had defended the National Judicial Appointments Commission as a member of Rajya Sabha in 2014. The senior counsel was also presented "Most Eminent Senior Citizen Award" by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in October 16, 2019. In 1996, he faced off against his son when he led former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s case against then governor Chenna Reddy’s decision to sanction her prosecution for alleged corruption. Parasaran and his long tenure as a lawyer has been of great interest amongst students. In fact, three university students also authored a book, titled, Law and Dharma: A tribute to the Pitamaha of the Indian Bar, in 2016. At the book release, Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul referred to Parasaran as the “pitamah” of the Indian bar.

Sai Rahul

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Update for the day #525|Interesting Facts about India

1)World's Only Floating Post Office:

India is not only known for the largest number of post offices in the world, but it has its very own floating post office on Dal Lake in Srinagar. Perched on a houseboat, it also includes a philately museum within itself. 2) Wettest Place on Earth – Mawsynram:

Holding a Guinness record for highest average annual rainfall, this town in Meghalaya gets about 11,873 millimeters of rain owing to its proximity to the Bay of Bengal. 3) The Only Country with a Bill of Rights for Cows:

From the moment an Indian s born, he has two mothers. One, his birth mother and two, Gaumata. Cows are believed to be holy in Hinduism, and the Constitution has a set of rules in place that prevents the sale and slaughter of cows. Now isn't this an amazing fact about India. 4) Poll Booth for Single Voter:

India's most privileged voter, Mahant Bharatdas, resides in a small hamlet called Banej in the middle of Gir Forest, Gujarat. The setting up of a special polling booth for just one voter goes a long way in speaking decibels about the democratic spirit of the country.

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5) Shani Shingnapur - Village Without Doors:

Attracting over 40,000 devotees each day due to a 300-yr old legend, this village in Maharashtra features establishments without any doors and locks. Its residents sleep soundly as they believe Lord Shani to be the guardian of the village. 6) Mysterious Anti-Gravity Hills in Ladakh, Magnetic Hill:

With the anti-gravitational effect, this is the only magnetic hill in India. Landmarked by a yellow notice board that spells out instructions and asks you place your car on neutral gear right on the spot marked by white paint, this one will leave you in awe as your car will begin to move uphill on its own. 7) First Rocket of India Transported by a Cycle:

In 1963, ISRO launched its first-ever rocket from a church in Thumba, on the outskirts of modern-day Trivandrum. The said rocket was transported on a bicycle. The launching pad later came to be known as Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC). 8) Indian National Kabaddi Team Has Won all World Cups:

India is where the game of Kabaddi originated, and the Indian national Kabaddi team makes sure it brings all the 5 World Cup trophies home. The women's Kabaddi team has also remained undefeated in all the Kabaddi World Cups.

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9) The Himalayas Have 9 out of 10 World's Highest Peaks:

The mighty Himalayas boast of 9 out of 10 world's highest peaks, the highest being Mt. Everest at 8,848 meters. 10) The Number of People Travelling in the Indian Railways Every Day is Equal to the Population of Australia:

Connecting more than 7,172 stations, the Indian Railways is the largest rail network in Asia carrying over 23 million passengers daily in 12,617 trains. 11) Roopkund - The Skeleton Lake:

Locally was known as the mystery lake or the skeleton lake, Uttarakhand’s Roopkund is infamous for hundreds of human skeletons found at the bottom of the lake and in the surrounding areas.

Sushmitha S

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Update for the day #526|The Power of manifestation Here’s a summary of a few chapters of the of the world's bestselling book - The Secret by Rhonda Bryne. This book has completely changed my thought process and helped me in numerous ways. I feel entrusted to make this worthy addition to your lives too. Hence, this update. Overview: The Secret is a self-help book about the power of positive thinking. The book is based on a pseudo-scientific theory called the “law of attraction” – the principle that “like attracts like.” Specifically, Byrne focuses on the idea that your dreams do in fact come true – thinking about money and wealth will attract these very things, causing them to manifest in your life. Likewise, fretting over a worst-case scenario will only cause your fears to be realized. Hence the importance of positive thinking. Byrne writes, “Your life right now is a reflection of your past thoughts.”

Chapter 1: The Secret Revealed People often accumulate great wealth only to lose their fortune and gain it again in cycles. She argues this is due to the law of attraction. People lose money because they allow “fearful thoughts of losing wealth to enter their minds,” causing their fears to be realized. Once the money is gone, their fear disappears as well, and they are able to focus on rebuilding their fortune. This is the law of attraction in a nutshell – if you think it, it will happen. “Like attracts like” – so envisioning riches will actually bring you wealth. Byrne means this literally. She believes that thoughts are magnetic, emitting a positive or negative frequency. Whatever thoughts you send out into the Universe will attract similar energies before returning like a boomerang. She explains, this is not different to watching TV. You receive a signal that the channel is programmed to send you. If you want to see something different, you have to change the channel. Thus, the importance of positive thinking and sending the right frequency into the Universe.

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Byrne notes that “your life right now is a reflection of your past thoughts.” If you’re doing well, you’ve been thinking positively. If not, it’s because you’ve been too negative. Byrne points out that most people don’t even realize they are thinking negatively. The problem is that the Universe doesn’t understand the word “no.” As a result, the Universe interprets “I don’t want to be late” as “I’ll be late.” Throughout the chapter, Byrne explains the science behind the law of attraction. She claims that it is supported by quantum physics, where the consensus is that the mind is powerful enough to create anything – including the Universe itself. Thus, the law of attraction is a law of nature. Like gravity, it applies whether you know it or not. The benefit of understanding the law of attraction is that you can use it to your advantage once you know how it works. Chapter 2: The Secret Made Simple The law of attraction is always at work. If you think you have no control over your destiny, then you will attract situations that render you helpless. The trick, she says, is to tell the Universe you have control over your life. Byrne offers a tip to tell whether you’re thinking negatively: listen to your body. Too much worrying often brings pain in your stomach or chest. Byrne goes one step further, arguing that these feelings are actually a message from the Universe. She quips this is the Universe’s way of saying “Warning! Change thinking now. Negative frequency recording. Change frequency. Warning!” Byrne closes by introducing the concept of “Secret Shifters.” These are activities that can help brighten your spirits so you don’t stay focused on negativity. Byrne suggests making a list of things that can help shift mood in times of distress, such as a fun song or thinking of a loved one. Chapter 3: How to Use the Secret Byrne changes focus in this chapter by introducing the concept of “ask, believe, receive.” Self-help expert James Ray opens by comparing the story of Aladdin to the law of attraction. Ray says the Universe is our Genie ready to grant the wishes we ask for. But it’s impossible for the Universe to know what to send unless you ask for it. Byrne then explains that The Secret works on 3 steps: Step #1: Ask You must ask clearly for what you want. When the request is not specific, the signal will be confused, and the frequency can attract mixed results. There’s no need to ask repeatedly because the Universe will understand the request the first time as long as it’s clear. Asking over and over again shows that you doubt the “order” placed. Step #2: Believe You must believe before you receive. It’s important to believe your wish is already coming the moment you ask. Once you believe, you can move on with your life and let the Universe work things out on its own. There’s no need to wait for your desires to materialize. Ongoing worry will only mix negative energy into the signal. Byrne stresses that believing is the most difficult step. Step #3: Receive Byrne says that in order to receive something, you must feel good about it. Act as if you’re already bought the car you want. Make plans for where you’ll go or where you’ll park. These actions will continue sending positive energy into the Universe until the car finally materializes. Byrne then explores the concept of time in relation to the law of attraction. She explains that time is relative, a principle from quantum mechanics. Some wishes take longer to manifest

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because people don’t believe in themselves. The only reason earning $1 million dollars takes a long time is because people think it should.

Chapter 4: Powerful Processes This chapter focuses on exercises to help you “ask, believe, receive.” Byrne cites a lecture given by Neville Goddard in 1954. An influential metaphysicist, Goddard suggests spending a few minutes before bed replaying the events of the day in your mind. But instead of visualizing the day as it occurred, replay your day as you would have liked it to be. This sets up the next day for success by dialing up your positive frequency. Byrne then introduces the concept of visualization. She says many of the great inventors in history relied on visualization. The Wright Brothers, she points out, saw a plane in their imagination and then brought it to life. Visualization is a tool to help you forget about the “how” and focus instead on believing and receiving. Byrne offers some additional methods to help with visualization. Focus on moving images: instead of thinking about the kitchen of your dreams, imagine yourself cooking, opening the fridge or grabbing a bottle of cold water. She also suggests creating a “vision board:” a corkboard where you pin images of all the things you want. The board should then be placed in a visible area, where you can look at the images as you ask and believe. Chapter 5: The Secret to Money This chapter outlines how the law of attraction can make you rich. Jack Canfield – creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series – explains that he grew up with very specific beliefs about wealth. He used to think that “only evil people have money” and “money doesn’t grow on trees.” As a result, he had none. Then he met speaker W. Clement Stone, who told him to make a goal and focus on visualizing he would achieve it. Thirty days later, he conceived of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which ended up earning him a million-dollar check. Byrne offers tips and reminders on using The Secret: Tell yourself that you can buy and afford things even if it seems impossible at the moment. Byrne refers readers to The Secret website, where people can download and print a blank check. Readers can then make the check for any amount they want and visualize their new fortune. Byrne stresses the need to let go of the “how.” Let go of the idea that money can only come as a result of a job. The truth is that money can come from anywhere. Another way to attract money is to give some away. The thought of “I have enough money to give away” will make it come true. Chapter 6: The Secret to Relationships This chapter explains how to use The Secret in relationships. Byrne tells the story of a man who wanted romance but decorated his house with paintings of women looking away or hiding. Once he replaced those paintings with artwork of loving relationships, he got just that. Byrne says that it’s important that actions don’t contradict wishes. Byrne gives several examples including one involving her own sister Glenda, who wanted to move from Australia to the U.S.

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For a long time, Glenda couldn’t quite figure out the logistics, so she eventually decided to take action. She sold her belongings, packed her bags, and started to organize her life as if she already had a departure date. Within a month, things had fallen into place and she was working in the U.S.

Chapter 7: The Secret to Health According to Dr. John Demartini, the “placebo effect” explains how the law of attraction applies even to your health. “You tell the patient that this is just as effective, and what happens is the placebo sometimes has the same effect, if not greater effect, than the medication that is supposed to be designed for that effect. They have found out that the human mind is the biggest factor in the healing arts, sometimes more so than the medication.” Surrounding yourself with positive thoughts is important when trying to heal. Byrne says that disease can only remain in the body when people are holding it there with their mind. Avoid focusing on illness if the goal is to make it go away. Talking about it only creates more negative energy. Change the topic in order to improve the way you feel. Byrne says it’s important to not buy into “preconceived” notions of disease. “It is as easy to cure a pimple as a disease,” she writes. “The process is identical; the difference is in our minds.” Byrne gives the example of Morris Goodman, who crashed his airplane and was told he would remain a vegetable for the rest of his life. Goodman says he used his mind and willed himself to get better. In just a couple of months, he walked out of the hospital on his own. Byrne ends by her motto: nothing is impossible as long as you believe. Summary: According to Byrne, the mind is a magnet, emitting and receiving frequencies to and from the Universe. Each thought sends out a signal, which is turn gathers similar frequencies – due to the law of attraction – before returning back to you. In this way, your mind can bring you anything you desire – dream of a new house, and somehow, someway, it will come to you. On the flip side, dwelling on war and poverty will only perpetuate these evils. Byrne even proposes that too much negative thinking can put you in the path of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. So, wisely choose what you think!

Namratha L R

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Update for the day #527|Power of gratitude Referring to the previous update given by Namratha, I would like to give you all a review of the book Magic by Rhonda Byrne. Even I wondered after reading The Secret, how to make positive thinking and gratitude a way of life. This book will help us in achieving the fullest of our lives.

Briefly, The Magic takes you on a 28-day journey of finding the magic in your life and living life more gratefully. For 28 days, you will participate in one different practice. Each practice involves being grateful and filling your life with more magic in various different aspects. For example, one practice will involve being grateful for relationships which will bring you more magical, loving, and positive relationships whereas the other practice may involve health; you will practice being grateful for your health and the gift of health will be more abundant in your life. As I mentioned, there are 28 different practices that you will take part in throughout your journey of living a more grateful life. I enjoyed all of these practices, but there are a few that I enjoyed more than others: Day 1: Count Your Blessings This practice was definitely a favorite of mine and you practice it for all 28 days! In this practice you are instructed to write down 10 things that you are grateful for every single morning. I could not think of a better way to start off my day! Day 2: The Magic Rock It is slightly different than the practice that was introduced on Day 1. This practice instructs you to find a rock, a nice smooth rock that will fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. You will hold onto this rock each night and while holding onto this rock, you are to think of the best part of your day. Once choosing the best part of your day and thinking about it you must say thank you. I loved doing this before bed every night. It’s like my rock holds so many special moments within it now.

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Day 5: Magic Money Take a hundred rupees note, and on a sticker to be put on the note, write in bold, capital letters, 'Thank You for All the Money I have Been Given Throughout My Life'. Take it with you, everywhere today (in a wallet). At least 3-4 times, take it out and read words slowly & feel grateful. Sincerity is very important. Whenever you get money, through salary or any other form, do not treat it as a matter of routine/non-event. Be grateful. Day 7: The Magical Way Out of Negativity In this practice, there are two assignments to do. The first assignment instructs you to think of a negative situation such as a negative relationship that has been bothering you. When you have chosen your one negative situation, you are then to write down ten things you are grateful for about the situation to make the situation not so negative. The second assignment within this practice was to go one full day without saying or thinking anything negative. The purpose of this assignment was to have the individual who is engaging in the practice to realize how often negative thoughts occur or words are spoken. Day 10: Magic Dust Everyone This is my personal favorite. In this practice you have to imagine that you have invisible magic dust with you. You have to throw it at people and things around you. Don't just throw away 'Thank You', give reasons. When you say 'Thank You', look into the eyes of another person and mean it. It makes both happy. You can sense your own happiness. Day 11: A Magic Morning In this practice, you are to say thank you for everything throughout your day. When the person in front of you holds the door open for you, when the cashier gives you your change, or when someone pays you a compliment you must always say thank you. Day 11 wants you to show thankfulness for everything. Day 21: Magical Outcomes When something unexpected happens, we fear something negative. Use this technique to be grateful for good outcome. If you miss a bus/train/plane, think that there is some good reason & be grateful for the outcome due to changed circumstances/plan. make it a habit. Day 26: Magically Transform Mistakes into Blessings Day 26 instructs you to choose one mistake that you have made in your life. After choosing your mistake, you are to find ten blessings that you are grateful for as a result of making that mistake. Day 27: The Magic Mirror On Day 27 you are to say thank you every time you look in the mirror! But the trick is that you have to mean it. Try this! It’s wonderful and makes you feel on top of the world! You can even take this practice one step further by saying three things that you love about yourself after saying thank you! This practice is a phenomenal practice for anyone; however, it will be especially beneficial to those suffering from negative body image or low self-esteem.

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Day 28: Remember the Magic "That's the thing with magic you have got to know/feel. It is still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you" After completing my 28-day journey, I can honestly say that I feel more grateful for life and all of the things that I have been blessed with. For the moment I open my eyes in the morning, for the moment my feet touch the floor when I step out of my bed, for the blessing of my warm bed to sleep in, and for the blessing of my parents who say I love you each and every morning. There is so much to be grateful for and the journey that The Magic took me on definitely made the little things seem more prominent and meaningful. But the challenge is to keep the practice of gratitude throughout the life and not just the 28 days! I highly recommend reading The Magic by Rhonda Byrne. I have always been wanting to become more grateful and this novel provided me with all of that.

Aarathi B

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Update for the day #528|Paris Agreement What Is the Paris Agreement? The Paris Agreement is a landmark environmental accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts. The deal aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, while pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. The agreement includes commitments from all major emitting countries to cut their climate-altering pollution and to strengthen those commitments over time. The pact provides a pathway for developed nations to assist developing nations in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, and it creates a framework for the transparent monitoring, reporting, and ratcheting up of countries’ individual and collective climate goals. History of the Paris Agreement Hammered out over two weeks in Paris during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) and adopted on December 12, 2015, the Paris Agreement marked an historic turning point for global climate action, as world leaders representing 195 nations came to a consensus on an accord that has commitments from all countries aimed at combating climate change and adapting to its impacts. The Paris Agreement could not take effect until at least 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global emissions had formally joined. This happened on October 5, 2016, and the agreement went into force 30 days later on November 4, 2016. How Many Countries Are in the Paris Agreement? At present, 197 countries—every nation on earth, with the last signatory being war-torn Syria—have adopted the Paris Agreement. Of those, 179 have solidified their climate proposals with formal approval—including the United States, for now. The only major emitting countries that have yet to formally join the agreement are Russia, Turkey, and Iran. Paris Agreement Summary The 32-page document establishes a framework for global climate action, including the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, support for developing nations, and the transparent reporting and strengthening of climate goals. Here’s what it aims to do: 1. Limit global temperature rise by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In an effort to “significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change,” the accord calls for limiting the global average temperature rise in this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. It also asks countries to work to achieve a leveling-off of global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and to become carbon neutral no later than the second half of this century. 2. Provide a framework for transparency, accountability, and the achievement of more ambitious targets. The Paris Agreement includes a series of mandatory measures for the monitoring, verification, and public reporting of progress toward a country’s emissions-reduction targets. The enhanced transparency rules apply common frameworks for all countries, with accommodations and

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support provided for nations that currently lack the capacity to enable them to strengthen their systems over time.

3. Mobilize support for climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing nations. Recognizing that many developing countries and small island nations that have contributed the least to climate change could suffer the most from its consequences, the Paris Agreement includes a plan for developed countries—and others “in a position to do so”—to continue to provide financial resources to help developing countries mitigate and increase resilience to climate change. Naman S

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Update for the day #529|Oxygen Bar It’s a well-known fact that air pollution is a great hazard for health in the urban areas. The air pollution in Delhi has undergone through several control measures. There have been attempts to figure out the level of pollutants and to reduce them. Delhi had crossed the maximum PM10 limit by almost 10-times at 198 μg/m3. Studies on air pollution and mortality show that increased air pollution enhanced natural mortality and morbidity rate in Delhi. At a time, the entire Delhi is struggling for clean air, there's one spot in the city where you can breathe "pure oxygen" for 15 minutes. While pure oxygen is considered odourless, "Oxy Pure", opened in May this year at Select City Walk, offers it in various flavors such as eucalyptus, lavender, vanilla, peppermint, gardenias, spearmint, lemongrass, cinnamon, orange, cherry among others. The bar, a first-of-its-kind in Delhi, charges Rs 299 to Rs 499 for 15 minutes of pure oxygen that the owner, Aryavir, claims works like magic on those complaining of mental fatigue, sleep disorders, blood pressure issues and stress. When pollution levels have spiked, portable oxygen cylinders are also in vogue and are being bought through e-commerce sites. However, experts believe that taking oxygen for a short while even at a high concentration has no benefit and such a theory has no scientific basis. According to experts, the concentration of oxygen in so-called "pure" air can go up to 40 per cent. The bar's brochure reads, "It is important to note that we do not recommend usage of an oxygen bar to people suffering from chronic asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema. We recommend people to consult their doctors first." Taking oxygen for a short while even at a high concentration has no benefit and such a theory has no scientific basis. It is misusing the menace of pollution by misguiding people for commercial purposes. People should not fall for such traps. Lavanya R

https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/oxy+pure

https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/eucalyptus

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Update for the day #530|The Crazy Marketing Ideas Growing a business isn’t easy! And without the right marketing strategies to fuel your growth, churning a profit and staying afloat is virtually impossible. This is where an effective marketing strategy of a company comes into play in order to capture the target market. But you may question, as to why the marketing strategies need to be weird. The answer to this is simple: Business promotion need not mean, talking about your company all the time; anything that is extremely beautiful or extremely weird will grab attention! So, here are few crazy-weird marketing strategies that actually worked. 1. Reverse Psychology: Reverse psychology is a kind of persuasion. It persuades an individual to accomplish something by asking them to do the opposite. Reverse psychology implants a suggestion. It is up to the targeted individual to respond.

Here’s a business who went about calling themselves the worst in the industry! Rudy’s BBQ in Austin Texas declared itself “The worst BBQ in Texas.” It’s probably not the typical marketing move to promote a product and service, but their tagline worked wonders. Because of their tagline being the worst, people have flocked to see, taste and judge for themselves if this establishment lives up to its name.

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2. Increasing sales with a cause (“Don’t forget”) We often see ads with a social cause attached to it that grabs the attention of many. However, Colgate went a step ahead when it decided to raise awareness on the importance of brushing your teeth after you have eaten your snacks.

Ad agency Young and Rubicam’s came up with clever idea to show what can happen when one marketer reaches out to another to collaborate on a good idea. Colgate approached a local ice cream manufacturer to have sticks shaped like a toothbrush inserted into its ice cream bars. As kids licked down to the end, they saw Colgate’s logo and a reminder, “Don’t Forget.” The strategy ensured the gain of everyone as it also boosted the sales of the ice cream manufacturer. 3. Emotion of empowerment unlike the age-old strategy of guilt and compassion: Be the Match, a non-profit focused on saving lives through bone marrow donation, was facing a critical business problem: their registry lacked 18-24-year-old men who have the ideal biology to be bone marrow donors for those suffering from life-threatening blood diseases. They introduced this young male audience to their unique opportunity to save a life as bone marrow donors by demonstrating how being young and male qualifies them to save a life, despite all the oddities that come with being young and male. While non-profit marketing often focuses on the patient, this campaign flipped that approach on its head, showing instead that being young and male qualifies you to save a life. With this campaign came the message of empowerment, rather than the typically seen emotional drivers of guilt or compassion. The advertisement used was:

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4. Air Guitar” If you don’t know, air guitars are imaginary guitars that pop up whenever people copy guitarists doing their thing

Radio stations have long been known for doing live, on-location shows at beaches, shopping malls, and car shows as a way to be more visible. But when launching a new station, FM 96.3 in Glasgow showed how far a few dollars and a creative idea can go to help gain attention. The station set up empty guitar racks around the city with a sign reading: “Free Air Guitar. Please Take One.” It was clever enough to get noticed. Visitors could snag a free air guitar. They could take more than one!! Just look at that huge inventory! 5. Month at a museum: Seeking to pep up its image and drive patronage, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, promised one person the chance to spend a “Month at the Museum”, to actually live there in a hotel-style room. The winner of the contest would then become a social media machine, Twittering, Facebooking, YouTubing and Flickering about the experience. The museum expected a few hundred entries, which included essays and videos. It received more than 1,500 from all over the world. The museum eventually earned from this strategy and also promoted the atmosphere that it’s cool to visit museums for learning and entertainment.

These are just some of the weird marketing strategies that actually worked. What’s noticeable is that these ideas are both risky and original; something unconventional that attracts people. Thinking outside the box has its benefits, and the results can be surprising. So, if your marketing strategy is not the best, it should be weird, at least!! Aishwarya R

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Update for the day #531|The Dynamics of India’s Growth Slowdown

The crisis brewing within the Indian economy has gained unanimous acceptance by now. Even the latest annual report of the RBI for the fiscal year 2018-19 (or FY19) confirmed that the Indian economy has indeed hit a rough patch. The GDP growth rate of the economy has slipped to 5 per cent in the first quarter of FY20, the lowest in over six years. This is an indication of tougher times ahead. Be it the recent collapse of the automobile sector or the rising number of non-performing assets (NPAs), sluggish consumer demand or failing manufacturing sector; all have a hand in this deceleration of growth rate. The spurt in instances of job losses from automobile manufacturers to biscuit makers has led to the general acceptance of the downturn. This is the third instance of an economic slowdown for India in the past decade after the ones that began in June 2008 and March 2011. The technical term for the same is growth recession. A recession is defined in economics as three consecutive quarters of contraction in GDP. But since India is a large developing economy, contraction is a rarity. The last instance of negative growth for India was in 1979. A growth recession is more commonplace where the economy continues to grow but at a slower pace than usual for a sustained period, what India has been facing nowadays. The growth of the Indian economy had been predominated by consumption inclusive of both -- Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) as well as the Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE). Over the last five years, the total consumption expenditure by Indian households had accelerated with an average growth rate of 7.8 per cent compared to an average of 6.1 per cent in 2011-14. But the recent sharp fall in PFCE in the June quarter to 3.1 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in the March quarter has significantly contributed to the recent slowdown. That being said, any fall in consumption expenditure, as and when it would happen, would escalate the crisis even more. If consumption spending falls, then output and employment levels also fall since consumption expenditure directly impacts the other two. As a consequence, the economy would stagnate, and prices deflate. Lower prices, if unable to recover the costs, would halt the operations of any firm and would initiate the layoff process. This, in turn, reduces earnings further. Hence this vicious cycle keeps on repeating itself until the economy slips into a deeper state of shock. In addition, another major component of India's GDP is investment, induced by both -- private and government sectors. It has been a key driver of growth since the liberalisation of 1991. Though gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), the main constituent of investment in the economy, increased, yet its contribution to growth fell by 6.2 percentage points in 2014-19 than in 2011-14. The slackening of investment lowers the level of infrastructure development, causes hesitation in creating small businesses, stop entrepreneurs from investing in research and development, and thus stagnates technological development. Capital Investments are long-term gains that generate profitability for many years by improving operational efficiency and boosting innovation. It goes without saying that for holistic growth of the economy and to gain a competitive edge over others, the economy must innovate. Indeed, it has been a worry for all the economists who through their thorough research have seen considerable slowdown in our economy, in fact the most undesirable of all time. Together, they paint a gloomy picture of the economy and pose a tough challenge to the new government. There are reports of big bang reforms on the way but navigating these times is not going to be easy.

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The RBI, in its Monetary Policy Report of April, has forecast that the Indian economy would grow at 7.2 per cent in 2019-20 and 7.4 per cent in 2020-21. This baseline scenario assumes a normal monsoon, benign CPI inflation and no oil shock. But the situation has reversed. As against 7 per cent growth projected by the RBI, the growth rate was 6.8 per cent in 2018-19. As we have seen in every race possible, for an athlete to take a lead start, he must take a lunge backward and then like a rocket can take off with great pace. In my opinion we are all capable of changing for the better and it is due to the simple reasons of differed taste of various consumers that is affecting us, the govt is currently taking a lunge backward to go to greater heights. Thus, India is having a rocky sail but the horizon is in near distance and surely prosperous. Impana H M

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Update for the day #532|Merchandise Exports from India Scheme Merchandise Export from India Scheme, this scheme provides an incentive in the form of duty credit scrip to the exporter to compensate for his loss on payment of duties. The incentive is paid as a percentage of the realized FOB value (in free foreign exchange) for notified goods going to notified markets. To determine the quantum of incentive, the countries have been segregated into three groups. Incentives on the export of each product at the 8-digit level (ITC HS codes), depends on the group in which its destination country belongs.

• Group A: USA and some Europe Union Countries.

• Group B: Has almost all other countries except Group A and Group C covered countries.

• Group C: SAARC countries, Australia and New Zealand, some EU and African countries. Group B has the highest quantum of incentive and Group C has no incentive at all. Ineligible Categories under MEIS:

• Supplies made from Domestic Tariff Area Unit (DTA) to SEZ Unit.

• Deemed Exports.

• SEZ/EOU/EHTP/BPT/FTWZ products exported through DTA units.

• Exports which are subject to Minimum Export Price or Export Duty.

• Export through trans-shipment i.e., exports that are originating in third country but trans-shipped through India.

Procedure for filing under the MEIS Scheme: a) An Application for claiming the reward shall be filed DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) Website through ANF 3A Form. b) If the Application for exports is made though non-Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Ports, then the applicant needs to submit export promotion copy of non-EDI shipping bills along with port of lading. c) Applicant should file a separate application for each port of export. d) Licensing Authority may call for documents in original at any time within 3 years. In case the applicant fails to submit the original documents on demand by Licensing Authority the applicant shall be liable to refund the rewards granted along with interest at the rate prescribed under Section 28AA of Customs Act 1962, from the date of issuance of scrip. Last date of filing of the application for duty credit scrips:

• Twelve months from the Let Export (LEO) date [the date on which the export customs clearance procedures completed with customs] or

• Three months from the date of: a) Uploading of EDI shipping bills onto the DGFT server by Customs. (In case of EDI Shipping Bills) b) Printing/ release of shipping bills for Non-EDI shipping bills. (In case of Non - EDI Shipping Bills), whichever is later.

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Late Cut: If the application for MEIS is not filed within the due date, but filed within the below mentioned timeline, the following shall be the late cut (i.e., a reduction from the actual benefit rate):

Sl. No

Particulars Late Cut Rate

1 Application received within 6 months of the last date

2%

2 Application received after 6 months but not later than 12 months of the last date

5%

3 Application received after 12 months but not later than 2 years

10%

Duty Credits Scrips can be used for payment of Basic Customs Duty and Additional Custom Duty. They are freely transferrable and the consideration received from such sale is an exempted supply. Duty Credit Scrips issued on or after 01.01.2016 shall be valid for a period of 24 months from the date of issue. Points to be noted:

• The Exporter should have a valid IEC Certificate at the time of exporting the goods.

• On Request, Spilt Certificate of duty credit scrips can be issued subject to a minimum of Rs 5 lakhs each and multiples at the time of application.

• Exports made through courier and E-Commerce shall be eligible for MEIS Benefit subject to consignment value should be more than Rs 25000.

• The Benefit under the scheme shall be available for exports made up to 31/3/2020.

• MEIS Reward Rates are based on ITC HS Code and Country Group – Find the attached pdf for the rates.

Prathyush M

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Update for the day #533|Reliance Communications limited - From glory to bankruptcy Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded Reliance Industries, was an icon of India's equity culture. When the company was listed in 1977, it had attracted thousands of small investors to a market dominated by state-run financial institutions. The company's annual shareholders' meetings were so well attended they had to be held in a football stadium. The name 'Reliance' spelled shareholder value. When Dhirubhai Ambani died in 2002, Reliance Industries had over two million shareholders, the largest ever investor base for any Indian company. History of Reliance Communications Limited: Reliance Communications was founded in India on 31 July 2002 as Reliance Infocomm Limited with the introduction of its nationwide CDMA2000 service. It became Reliance Communications Limited in 2006. The company introduced its GSM service in 2008. It began using MIMO technology in 2011 to improve the quality of its 3G service, providing a data rate of up to 28 Mbit/s.

Major Acquisitions and Mergers: a) On 14 January 2016, Reliance Communications had acquired Sistema Shyam Tele Services Limited (SSTL, operating as MTS India) in an all-stock deal. SSTL received a 10 per cent stake in Reliance Communications after repaying its existing debt. Reliance Communications would assume responsibility for instalments that MTS owed the government for spectrum purchases,

amounting to ₹392 crore every year for 10 years. As a result of the deal, Reliance acquired MTS India's subscribers and SSTL's spectrum in the 850 MHz band. b) On 14 September 2016, Reliance and Maxis Communications (owners of Aircel) announced that they would merge their mobile networks. The deal, the largest consolidation in Indian telecommunication history, would have created the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the country in subscribers and revenue. Reliance and Maxis would each hold a 50-percent stake in the merged entity, with equal representation on its board of directors and committees. Reliance would continue to operate in the enterprise segment and data-center businesses as a standalone company.

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However, on 1 October 2016, Reliance announced that it had allowed the merger agreement to

lapse. The deal, which was expected to help the company repay ₹25,000 crore of debt, was cancelled due to delays by entrenched competition. Reliance was looking at other options to meet their obligations under the SDR agreement and avoid insolvency proceedings by banks. Due to the failed Aircel merger, the company announced to employees in the wireless and DTH businesses on 25 October 2017 that they would be redundant effective 30 November. On 29 December 2017, Reliance discontinued voice services in India and would provide only 4G data service. How the trouble started: Ever since the split of Reliance Industries, Anil's fortunes have gone down. In 2007, according to Forbes Rich List, Anil had a net worth of $45 billion. His biggest asset was a 66% stake in telecom venture Reliance Communications. Elder brother Mukesh had a net worth of $49 billion. In the 2018 Forbes India Rich List, Mukesh topped at $47.3 billion while Anil ranked 66th at $2.44 billion. Sectoral stresses such as price wars, heavy debt and plunging profitability that crippled India's telecom sector also took their toll on RCom. In 2013, Rcom signed a multi-year managed services agreement (MSA) with Ericsson to manage services of wireline and wireless network of 100,000 km of fiber and mobile infrastructure in 11 telecom circles in India. This arrangement was a smooth business relationship until 2016, post which RCom struggled to pay the dues. By September 2017, Ericsson terminated the MSA and approached the NCLT to recover dues of Rs 1100 crores. By May 2018, the NCLT initiated insolvency proceedings even as RCom tried to sell spectrum and other assets. At the same time, RCom reached out to Ericsson and agreed to pay Rs 550 crore as a settlement with a personal guarantee from Anil Ambani on the condition of withdrawal of insolvency proceedings. But the company which was forced to shut its wireless operations under financial pressure late 2017 and moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and averted bankruptcy proceedings by citing its deals with Jio and Brookfield, and agreed to pay Ericsson Rs 550 crore as a settlement. The Supreme Court reviewed the matter in August 2018 and ordered RCom to pay up Rs 550 crore to Ericsson by 30 September. But, RCom failed to comply with the payment and sought an extension of 60 days to comply. Ericsson filed a contempt petition in Supreme court. In February 2019, the Supreme court has held Anil Ambani and three others guilty of contempt of court and directed them to make payments by 19 March. In the meantime, Mukesh Ambani, the elder brother of Anil helped him with a bailout of 463 crores which he paid just a day before the deadline on 18 March.

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Resignation of directors: RCom was forced to shut its wireless operations in late 2017 facing huge debt, falling revenue and widening losses. In the second quarter of 2019-20, Reliance Communications' consolidated loss stood at Rs 30,142 crore. A day after details of losses incurred by Reliance Communications in the second quarter of 2019-2020 were made public, Reliance Communications said Anil Dhirubhai Ambani resigned as the company's director. Along with him, Chhaya Virani, Ryna Karani, Manjari Kacker and Suresh Rangachar who were senior officials of Reliance Communications have also stepped down from their posts. In a letter addressed to the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, Reliance Communications said it is informing them about the recent developments. The letter also said resignation of Anil Ambani and others will be put up to the company's committee of creditors for their consideration. Rakesh K

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Update for the day #534|Help Age India HelpAge India is an Indian organization focused on the concerns of elders. Established in 1978, its mission is “to work for the cause and care of disadvantaged older persons and to improve their quality of life”. HelpAge advocates for their needs such as, for Universal Pension, quality healthcare, action against Elder Abuse and many more at the national, state and societal level, with the Central and State governments. It runs various Agecare programs to service elder needs. The aim is to serve disadvantaged elders in a holistic manner, enabling them to live active, dignified and healthier lives.

History: HelpAge India began in the late 1960s when the speaker of the Lok Sabha visited his counterpart in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, who was also honorary secretary of Help the Aged. He came back with a vision of setting up something similar in India. HelpAge India is one of the founding members of HelpAge International, a high-profile body having 97 member countries representing the cause of the elderly at the United Nations. It is closely associated with Help the Aged, UK and has received a special testimonial from the United Nations for "Dedicated service in support of the United Nations Programme on Ageing". HelpAge India is also a full member of the International Federation on Ageing. In April 1978, HelpAge India was registered in Delhi. Within three months it became autonomous as financial support ceased from UK. Soon after, in July, the society was awarded Certificates of Exemption under Sections 12A and 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961, thus indicating general confidence in the society’s affairs.

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Programs:

Mobile Healthcare Units (MHU): This program seeks to provide sustainable healthcare solutions to elders and their communities. The core of the program is a sponsored Mobile Healthcare Unit (MHU). This Unit provides primary healthcare to the needy elderly, while simultaneously educates the community on preventive healthcare. Each MHU has a doctor, pharmacist and a social worker. There are more than 159 Mobile Healthcare Units working in 24 states, providing 2.9 million free treatments. Restoration of Vision: In India, 62% elderly suffer from cataract blindness. Credible and competent eye hospitals are selected for carrying out surgeries with HelpAge India's support. All surgeries are performed only in base hospitals and not in make-shift camps. Since 1980, this program has benefitted more than 9 lakh elders, restoring their sight & dignity. Cancer and Palliative Care: Cancer treatment in our country is highly priced and majority of elders are not covered by any form of medical insurance. HelpAge India provides palliative care to end-stage cancer patients, in partnership with a number of credible and competent cancer hospitals and organizations. Over 99,000 treatments have been supported since 1998. Support a Gran: There are thousands of destitute elders who have no one to look after their basic needs and require support & help to sustain their day-to-day living. Over the years HelpAge India has enabled more than 30,000 destitute elders, by providing them regular supplies of food rations, clothing, basic healthcare and some pocket money, so they can live a life of dignity. Elder Helplines: HelpAge runs toll-free Elder Helplines across 21 states in India offering assistance to older persons in need of emergency care and protection. The services offered are - rescue of abandoned elders, counselling those in distress, legal support, information related to services available etc. HelpAge has also launched the 'HelpAge SOS' App to ensure help is just a click away. Old Age Homes/Day Care Centers: A roof over their heads is the critical need of the destitute elder, sick and often abandoned by family. HelpAge India has established model homes for the aged in places such as Patiala & Gurdaspur in Punjab, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu and Kolkata in West Bengal. Besides these, HelpAge has also supported over 60 old age homes across India. Livelihood Support: Elders struggling to survive, especially in rural India, live lonely and impoverished lives. HelpAge organizes them into sustainable Elder-Self-Help-Groups (ESHGs) so they can pool their resources and support each other in times of need. Once the group is formed, the elders choose a viable livelihood activity that can generate income as well. These ESHGs are then federated into higher level community institutions so that they gain additional robustness. This model of HelpAge India has been adopted by the Ministry of Rural Development. Student Action for Value Education (SAVE): To address the increasing gap between generations and sensitize the young towards elders, HelpAge works hand-in-hand with schools across the country to inculcate values of care, love and respect towards the elderly, in young students so they grow to become responsible and caring individuals and are sensitive to the needs of the older generation.

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Digital Literacy for Elders: The increasing pace of change in technology often excludes elders from the mainstream social fabric. To tackle this, HelpAge has started an easy 'Digital Literacy' program introducing elders to the online world. Partner institutions, organizations and volunteers are encouraged to conduct basic tutorials for elders, using the HelpAge Handbook for senior citizens – Computers and Smart Phones learning made easy. Advantage Card program: This benefit card offers discounts to senior citizens from Retail Associates on various products, services, and facilities ranging from health and wellness to holiday homes. Currently, there are 1.75 lakh members across 400 towns, in 23 states, being offered discounts by more than 8000 retail outlets across India. What began as a humble initiative from a rented two-room office in New Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg, has now blossomed into an extensive operation spread across 27 states with 127 project offices in India and headquartered at the capital’s Qutab Institutional Area. Sakshi R

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Update for the day #535|Service Exports from India Scheme When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) aims to promote export of services from India by providing duty credit scrip for eligible exports. I. Applicability: The scheme applies to Export of Services made on or after 01.04.2015 to 31.03.2020 II. Eligibility:

• Service Providers of notified services, located in India, shall be rewarded under SEIS. The notified services and rates of rewards are listed in Appendix 3D which is attached for your reference.

• Individual Service Providers and sole proprietorship shall have minimum net free foreign exchange earnings criteria would be US$10,000 in year of rendering service to be eligible for Duty Credit Scrip.

• Other Service provider shall have minimum net free foreign exchange earnings of US$15,000 in year of rendering service to be eligible for Duty Credit Scrip.

• Payment in Indian Rupees for service charges earned on specified services, shall be treated as receipt in deemed foreign exchange as per guidelines of Reserve Bank of India. The list of such services is indicated in Appendix 3E.

• If the IEC holder is a manufacturer of goods as well as service provider, then the foreign exchange earnings and Total expenses / payment / remittances shall be taken into account for service sector only.

• In order to claim reward under the scheme, Service provider shall have to have an active IEC at the time of rendering such services for which rewards are claimed.

III. Calculation of Net Foreign exchange earnings Net Foreign Exchange = Gross Earnings of Foreign Exchange minus Total expenses / payment / remittances of Foreign Exchange by the IEC holder, relating to service sector in the Financial year. Note: Free Foreign Exchange earned through international credit cards and other instruments, as permitted by RBI shall also be taken into account for computation of value of exports Following shall not be taken into account for calculation of entitlement under the scheme: (1) Foreign Exchange remittances A. Related to Financial Services Sector:

• Raising of all types of foreign currency Loans

• Export proceeds realization of clients

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• Issuance of Foreign Equity through ADRs/ GDRs or other similar instruments

• Issuance of foreign currency Bonds

• Sale of securities and other financial instruments

• Other receivables not connected with services rendered by financial institutions.

B. Earned through contract/ regular employment abroad (e.g. labour remittances)

(2) Payments for services received from EEFC Account (3) Foreign exchange turnover by Healthcare Institutions like equity participation, donations etc. (4) Foreign exchange turnover by Educational Institutions like equity participation, donations etc. (5) Foreign Exchange earnings for services provided by Airlines, Shipping lines service providers plying from any foreign country X to any foreign country Y routes not touching India at all. (6) Service providers in Telecom Sector IV. Ineligible categories under SEIS:

• Foreign exchange remittances other than those earned for rendering of notified services would not be counted for entitlement

• Foreign exchange earnings such as equity or debt participation, donations, receipts of repayment of loans etc. and any other inflow of foreign exchange, unrelated to rendering of service.

V. Process of SEIS: 1) Policy for Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) is given in Chapter 3 of FTP 2) An application for grant of duty credit scrip for eligible services rendered shall be filed online for a financial year on annual basis in ANF 3B using digital signature 3) Class - 3 DSC is required for filing the above online application.

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Example: For the services provided by Chartered Accountants, the following are the applicable rates of benefits:

Nature of Service classification under SEIS

Central Product Classification (CPC) Code

Admissible Rate (in % on Net Foreign Earnings) from 01.04.2015 to 31.10.2017

Admissible Rate (in % on Net Foreign Earnings) from 01.11.2017 to 31.03.2019

Accounting, auditing and book - keeping services

862 5% 5%

Taxation services

863 5% 5%

VI. Last date of filing of application for Duty Credit Scrips: The last date for filing application shall be 12 months from the end of relevant financial year of claim period. VII. Late Cut: If the application for MEIS / SEIS is not filed within the due date, but filed within the below mentioned timeline, the following shall be the late cut (i.e., reduction from the the actual benefit rate).

Sl. No. Date of filing Late Cut

I Application received after the expiry of last date but within six months from the last date

2%

II Application received after six months from the prescribed date of submission but not later than one year from the prescribed date

5%

III Application received after 12 months from the prescribed date of submission but not later than 2 years from the prescribed date

10%

Karthik Kumar P

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Update for the day #536|Mastodon

What is Mastodon? Mastodon is a free and open-source self-hosted social networking platform created by German coder Eugen Rochko in 2016. While platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc. are hosted on one server and controlled by a single entity, Mastodon allows users to create their own servers, thus creating their own communities and its various separately operated user bases are federated across many different servers. These servers are connected as a federated social network, allowing users from different servers to interact with each other seamlessly. Mastodon is a part of the wider Fediverse, allowing its users to also interact with users on different open platforms that support the same protocol, such as Peer Tube and Friendica. How does it work? Signing up for Mastodon requires just an email ID, a username and password. Users can create their profiles, follow other users and post messages, videos and images, similar to how it is done on other social media platforms. In fact, the layout of Mastodon is very similar to Twitter’s. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon has a 500-character limit for each message, or ‘Toot’, as it is called on Mastodon. Mastodon has microblogging features similar to Twitter, or Weibo, although it is distinct from them, and unlike a typical software as a service platform, it is not centrally hosted While platforms like Twitter only have two options of being a fully protected account or a fully public account, Mastodon offers much more customization. Each individual message can either be fully public, appearing to your followers, the public timelines, anyone looking at your profile. Or, it can be unlisted, appearing to your followers and anyone looking at your profile, but skipping the public timelines. Or it can be private, appearing only to your followers and people mentioned in it. Or it can be direct, appearing only to people mentioned in it. Mastodon, similar to Twitter also has a ‘lists’ feature for categorizing the people you are following. But unlike on Twitter, you cannot add someone to a list unless you are already following them, and the lists are personal, not public.

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Adoption: While Mastodon was first released in October 2016, the service began to expand in late March and early April 2017. The global use has risen from 766,500 users as of 1 August 2017, to 1 million users on 1 December 2017. In November 2017 artists, writers and entrepreneurs such as Chuck Wendig, John Scalzi, Melanie Gillman and later John O' Nolan joined in. Another spike in popularity came in April 2018, due to the concerns about user privacy raised by the #delete facebook effort. Mastodon, along with a number of other alternative social media sites, saw a large uptick in membership, gaining thousands of new members in the period of a few hours following Tumblr's announcement of intent in early December 2018 to ban all sensitive content from their site. Many Indian users shifted to Mastodon from Twitter after complaining that Twitter moderated only the accounts of lower castes. How is it different from other platforms like Twitter? Decentralization: On a platform like Twitter or Facebook, you have to share data while creating a profile. In order to interact with others, they also need to be on Twitter or Facebook. And in interacting with others, you need to follow the rules and preferences set by that platform. All the data you share will then be with that one large corporation which is running the social media platform. Mastodon, unlike these platforms, is decentralized. Since anyone can create their own server, Mastodon is not owned by any single company or entity. And every server created can have its own terms and rules. Every new server (or version) of Mastodon that is created is called an ‘Instance’. All instances are owned, operated and moderated by the community that creates them, thus making the platform decentralized. Within one instance, users can follow and interact with each other. Users can also follow and interact with users from other instances also. Such a network is called a federated (interconnected) social network. This differs from traditional social networks by allowing users to choose a specific server which has policies they agree with, or to leave a server that has policies they disagree with, without losing access to Mastodon's social network. The major advantage with using Mastodon, is that one’s data is not owned by any single corporation, with the risk of it being sold to or used by advertisers. Some of the other benefits of the decentralized approach are that indeed it’s harder for governments to deal with, not only in terms of collecting data or enforcing some kind of rule or secret requests for tracking. It also has to do with shutting down. For example, in a country like Turkey, where the government wants to block access to particular content on the internet, it’s easier to block one website than it is to block a network of 2,000 3,000 different websites. Mastodon is not run by ads: Mastodon is crowd-sourced and most of its servers are crowd-funded by its users. Crowdfunding was big in 2018, and it’s proven that it works as people understand the value of being a patron to something that they value that does not necessarily have commercial value.

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Anti-abuse policies: Mastodon also offers effective anti-abuse tools to help moderate instances as users and communities see fit. According to Mastodon, one major advantage over a platform like Twitter is the fact that each server has a separate admin and moderation team, along with its own code of conduct. The moderation team of one server, be it just one admin or multiple people, is a lot closer to and more approachable and can therefore take abuse seriously. However, there are certain disadvantages also. Since anyone can create their own server and there is no single entity to control all the servers, there are possibilities for terrorists or some illegal organizations to misuse this platform for their own advantages.

Dhaarani M V

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Update for the day #537|Coworking Spaces Coworking spaces are essentially shared workspaces. They offer affordable office space for those looking to escape the isolation of a home office or coffee shop. These shared workspaces offer a suite of office-like amenities such as hot-desks, private meeting rooms, kitchens, coffee and more. Often, they also offer a community. Occupants typically are freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and small teams who want to take advantage of a flexible space. In addition to culture, cost is another big draw. One of the advantages of these spaces is the ability to rent out only what you need vs an entire private office space, which can be costly. Through various membership-based models, costs vary and allow for flexibility. These include options for daily fees or monthly fees. Membership costs also differ based on whether you use a shared desk or want a dedicated one. WHO USES COWORKING SPACES? FREELANCERS Co-working spaces create the best of both worlds for freelancers: The flexibility of choosing your own hours and schedule without the isolation. These shared spaces are thus great for freelancers. A feeling of community is created for those that would otherwise be forced to work alone at home, or a coffee shop. START-UPS Start-ups appreciate the flexibility of coworking spaces. Coworking spaces don’t come with the high costs and commitments of a traditional office leases. They also provide the chance for small teams to interact with others in the space. These spaces also may even help entrepreneurs find a co-founder for their start-up by connecting the right people at the right time. Coworking spaces provide a great fit for these types of small organizations . There’s an inherent alignment between what the spaces offer and the goals of freelancers and start -ups. What shared spaces allow for is true freedom and mobility? The culture is conducive to the truly organic collaboration and conversations that are struck up. In one way this is the value of coworking spaces. They allow for innovation by allowing different people with unique skills and talents to connect and collaborate. But the other advantage is the fact that the culture is shaped out of the concept of freedom and flexibility. The genesis of coworking spaces was based around serving the needs of small organizations and freelancers to connect. Design is only one aspect though. What makes coworking spaces different is culture. Some organizations may have similar spaces in their office but not have a culture that encourages flexibility to get up and move or collaborate with different departments.

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Examples of coworking spaces are –

CoWorks CoWorks is a Bengaluru-based company, backed by property developer RMZ Corp., a network of coworking spaces curated for the community of like-minded individuals gather to work, collaborate, inspire and get inspired, and connect. By challenging the concept of traditional workspaces, Co Works provides spectacular workspace designs, an intelligent network for professionals to tap into and with infectious energy.

IndiQube IndiQube, another Bengaluru based company focused on making life easier and comfortable for startups and entrepreneurs by providing office space on lease, is looking at increasing footprints in other major metros in the country. Yash M

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Update for the day #538|FASTag Easy to cruise The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made FASTag mandatory from December 1, 2019. Non-FASTag users will be charged double the toll fee if they pass through FASTag-only lanes after December 1, 2019, as per the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. Also, the inadequate amount in your tag will get your vehicle blacklisted at the toll plaza and again, you may end up paying double charges. The move comes under the National Electronic Toll Collection Programme which aims to achieve fast movement of vehicles, reduction in congestion and cashless toll collection. What is FASTag?? FASTag is a RFID passive tag used for making toll payments directly from the customers linked prepaid or savings/current account. It is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle and enables the customer to drive through toll plazas, without stopping for any toll payments. The toll fare is directly deducted from the linked account of the customer. How does FASTag RFID sticker work at the NHAI toll plaza?

1. While approaching the NHAI toll plazas having the dedicated FASTag lanes, drivers must slow down to check for the proper FASTag signage. 2. The driver must enter the correct earmarked FASTag lane at an approximate speed of 25-30 kmph and maintain at least 10 meters distance from any other vehicle ahead on the road. 3. If the RFID tag is read by the reader installed in the designated lane of the toll plaza and gets authenticated properly, then the drivers will see the green traffic light to guide him/her to pass through the lane and the barrier will stay open. 4. Do not stop the vehicle after the green signal appears or after the boom barrier opens. Taking too much time at this step may lead the boom barrier to fall back. 5. In case the RFID tag is not read or validated due to any reason, then the traffic light will turn red. The driver must slow down as the boom barrier may come down at this step. The official at the toll plaza will then check the tag with the help of a handheld reader. If the handheld reader correctly reads and validates the RFID tag, the vehicle will be allowed to cross the particular toll plaza. But, if the RFID tag is not valid or is blacklisted, the driver will have to pay the toll amount in the form of cash. How to buy FASTag? Vehicles manufactured and sold after December 1, 2017, already comes pre-fitted with FASTag. However, the owners of older vehicles must get the FASTag with a linked payment method to it. There are two different types of FASTags, NHAI tags, and bank-specific tags. Bank-specific FASTags are provided by 22 banks at designated branches, toll plazas operated by the assigned banks and at common service centers. These FASTags are linked to a prepaid wallet by the issuer banks.

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On the other hand, NHAI-FASTags are bank-neutral and are not linked to any bank. These FASTags have to be activated after the purchase. One can locate the nearest point of sale counter by visiting the official website of Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL). FASTag can also be purchased online through e-commerce website Amazon and on Paytm. However, users must submit a copy of the vehicle's Registration Certificate at the time of activating FASTag.

Documents required to buy FASTag 1. A copy of the vehicle's Registration Certificate 2. Two photographs (passport size) 3. KYC documents such as ID and address proof -- Driver's License, PAN card, Voter ID,

Passport or Aadhaar I have two vehicles; can I use one FASTag for two vehicles? FASTag is issued to each vehicle based on KYC documents submitted. You will need to take two separate FASTags for the two vehicles. If a FASTag, for instance, bought for one Car is used for a Truck then such FASTag shall get blacklisted resulting into denial of vehicle passage from FASTag lanes on Toll Plazas. What are the benefits of using FASTag? 1. Ease of payment – No need to carry cash for the toll transactions, saves time 2. Near non-stop movement of vehicles leading to lower fuel cost. 3. Online Recharge – FASTag can be recharged online through Credit Card / Debit Card / NEFT/ RTGS or Net banking 4. SMS alerts for toll transactions, low balance, etc. 5. Online Portal for customers 6. The validity is for 5 Years 7. Incentive: You can avail a cashback of 2.5% on all Toll payments using FASTag in 2019-20 It is planned to extend the usage of FASTag to toll plazas at State highways for tolling, parking lots for parking charge and various other payments at the wayside amenities. Bashar H

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Update for the day #539|Oyo Rooms

Oyo Rooms is the largest branded network of hotels currently operating 450,000 listings in 5,000 cities in India, Malaysia, UAE, Nepal, China and Indonesia. The company started off its operations by building its business model around the aggregator business model but things have changed since 2018. Earlier, the company used to organize the partner with hotels, lease some rooms, and sell them under its own brand. Even though the process is still the same, Oyo’s business model has changed its route to a new structure. The main focus, however, still is the quality of the service provided. Hence, to maintain the brand image, they make the partners provide services at predetermined standards while they make them more visible to their user-base. Oyo Rooms – An Aggregator or A Franchisor? Oyo Rooms Business Model used to be a hotel aggregator. However, it was different from Oyo as Oyo didn’t focus just on the discoverability of the partners among the users but also on the standardized quality of the services provided.

The customers used to buy the services from the brand Oyo rooms and didn’t care who the partner was. Just like Uber, Oyo provided rooms with standardized quality and price. This model was a mix of aggregator business model and franchise business model. But as time passed, the company built its brand equity and the founders decided to shift its business model to a pure franchise business model. The company now gets 90% of its revenue from hotels under the franchise model. Business Model of Oyo Rooms Oyo Rooms business model was similar to the usual aggregator business model (Uber for x business model) but had the essence of the franchise business model as well. The company used to – 1. Lease a part of Hotel’s inventory beforehand, 2. Organize those hotel rooms under their brand name – Oyo Rooms 3. These partner hotels provided standardized service to customers of those rooms as it was decided in a contract with Oyo 4. Bookings were made through the Oyo Rooms website and mobile application. The current operating model of Oyo Rooms is similar to what it was before. It’s just the company doesn’t lease the hotel rooms anymore, but ask the hotel partners to operate them as franchise. They have good brand equity and boasts a 100% increase in revenue to their partner hotels. Partnership Model Oyo Rooms provide visitors with quality hotel room stays at different places around India. They have partnered with hotels and made them work with them under their name. Oyo Rooms, started and famous as branded hotel rooms aggregator, provides many more services than just hotel rooms to visitors.

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The services included in the Oyo Rooms business model are – Hotel Rooms Oyo’s earlier strategy was to book a part of the hotels’ inventory, to maintain it as per the quality standards, and to hold it captive exclusively for Oyo customers. That is, they used to lease some rooms every month and provide them to their own customers at profits. The only thing that has changed is that the rooms are now not leased but operated as Oyo Rooms franchise. Since the hotels and place owners act as the franchisee, they are bound to operate as per the pre-determined standards. The company even offers plans where it runs the place instead of the hotel staff or owner. Oyo Townhouse The company has recently launched the Oyo Townhouse to hone its value proposition and stand out of the competition when it comes to standardised hospitality. Oyo Townhouse is based on the needs of the millennial traveller. These hotels are planned and built based on the needs and wants of the millennials. They have – Smarter Rooms – with specially designed beds, showers, sockets, and internet infrastructure. Even TVs have Netflix installed. Smarter Spaces – common spaces designed to have meetings. Free printer, business services, magazines, coffee and tea in the common area. Revenue Model of Oyo Rooms The revenue model has also transformed as the business model changed from aggregator to franchise. Earlier the brand used to lease hotels at a predetermined price and offered them to the users at a take-up rate. This has been changed to a commission-based revenue model. Oyo rooms charges a commission of 22% from its hotel partners. However, this commission does vary according to the services provided by the brand. Future of Oyo Rooms Oyo is growing. Though this growth is at a cost, it will be worth it afterwards. According to a source, Oyo Rooms has delivered a 15x annual growth with 2.3 million booked room-night transactions in the first quarter of the calendar year 2016 while its GMV continues to grow substantially every month. This shows the increasing brand equity and demand of Oyo. Oyo has set its name as the high-quality budget hotel network, which might change in the near future as the prices might increase. But since Oyo has come up with a new franchise model, there are chances that the prices might be kept as they are now. Challenges of Oyo The start-up needs to improve its business model as the in few instances the customers don’t get the room they book or the hotel does not the amenities that was shown in the OYO app. Hotel players are alleging that Oyo had initially approached them offering a strategic partnership by sharing room inventories. However, with time, as the room aggregator became stronger with deeper pockets, it started twisting them and asked them to forgo minimum guarantee fee and change existing contracts.

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There are allegations that OYO is selling lower prices to its hotel players and higher prices on its own hotels. In today’s dynamic environment every business needs to continuously adapt, re-invent and improve its operations to sustain. Hence the start-up needs to come clean regarding the allegations and improve it business model rather than just expanding. OYO Investors & valuation Softbank vision being the initial investors and holding major stake and others include Airbnb, Didi Chuxing, Sequoia Capital India and many more. The start-up is expanding rapidly and is currently valued (no clear valuation method) at 10 billion and 15 billion. The start-up reported 3.5 x growths in revenue in FY 2017–18 at Rs 416cr for India operations and a marginal loss of 360 cr. In 2018, OYO reported a loss of 330.97 crore was better than the previous year. OYO’s losses, flaw in business-model and allegations can be a concern to investors. But still investor like Softbank is investing heavily, reason being unclear for taking such high risk.

Shashank K E

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Update for the day #540|Elon Musk

“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster” -ELON MUSK In the world of business every entrepreneur aims for maximizing the profits whereas, here is a man who is the same with a different vision of saving this planet and even in search of a new home on Mars. Yes, it sounds crazy, but he is proving the whole world that it is not. A brief history on Elon Reeve Musk, he is a South African born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became Pay pal), SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003 Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. Elon Musk’s Companies 1. Zip2 Corporation Musk launched his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995 with his brother, Kimball Musk. An online city guide, Zip2 was soon providing content for the new websites of both The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. In 1999, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. 2. PayPal In 1999, Elon and Kimball Musk used the money from their sale of Zip2 to found X.com, an online financial services/payments company. An X.com acquisition the following year led to the creation of PayPal as it is known today. In October 2002, Musk earned his first billion when PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock. 3. SpaceX Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station—with plans for astronaut transport in the future—in a move to replace NASA’s own space shuttle missions.

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Falcon 9 Rockets On May 22, 2012, Musk and SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, marking the first time a private company had sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Of the launch, Musk was quoted as saying, "I feel very lucky. ... For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl." In December 2013, a Falcon 9 successfully carried a satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit, a distance at which the satellite would lock into an orbital path that matched the Earth's rotation. In February 2015, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 fitted with the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite, aiming to observe the extreme emissions from the sun that affect power grids and communications systems on Earth. In March 2017, SpaceX saw the successful test flight and landing of a Falcon 9 rocket made from reusable parts, a development that opened the door for more affordable space travel. A setback came in November 2017, when an explosion occurred during a test of the company's new Block 5 Merlin engine. SpaceX reported that no one was hurt, and that the issue would not hamper its planned rollout of a future generation of Falcon 9 rockets. The company enjoyed another milestone moment in February 2018 with the successful test launch of the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. Armed with additional Falcon 9 boosters, the Falcon Heavy was designed to carry immense payloads into orbit and potentially serve as a vessel for deep space missions. For the test launch, the Falcon Heavy was given a payload of Musk's cherry-red Tesla Roadster, equipped with cameras to "provide some epic views" for the vehicle's planned orbit around the sun. In July 2018, Space X enjoyed the successful landing of a new Block 5 Falcon rocket, which touched down on a drone ship less than 9 minutes after lift-off. BFR Mission to Mars In September 2017, Musk presented an updated design plan for his BFR (an acronym for either "Big Falcon Rocket"), a 31-engine behemoth topped by a spaceship capable of carrying at least 100 people. He revealed that SpaceX was aiming to launch the first cargo missions to Mars with the vehicle in 2022, as part of his overarching goal of colonizing the Red Planet. In March 2018, the entrepreneur told an audience at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, that he hoped to have the BFR ready for short flights early the following year, while delivering a knowing nod at his previous problems with meeting deadlines. The following month, it was announced that SpaceX would construct a facility at the Port of Los Angeles to build and house the BFR. The port property presented an ideal location for SpaceX, as its mammoth rocket will only be movable by barge or ship when completed. Star link Internet Satellites In late March 2018, SpaceX received permission from the U.S. government to launch a fleet of satellites into low orbit for the purpose of providing Internet service. The satellite network, named Star link, would ideally make broadband service more accessible in rural areas, while also boosting competition in heavily populated markets that are typically dominated by one or two providers.

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SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites in May 2019 and followed with another payload of 60 satellites that November. While this represented significant progress for the Star link venture, the appearance of these bright orbiters in the night sky, with the potential of thousands more to come, worried astronomers who felt that the proliferation of satellites would increase the difficulty of studying distant objects in space. 4. Tesla Motors

Musk is the co-founder, CEO and product architect at Tesla Motors, a company formed in 2003 that is dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars as well as battery products and solar roofs. Musk oversees all product development, engineering and design of the company's products.

Roadster Five years after its formation, in March 2008, Tesla unveiled the Roadster, a sports car capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, as well as traveling nearly 250 miles between charges of its lithium ion battery. With a stake in the company taken by Daimler and a strategic partnership with Toyota, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering in June 2010, raising $226 million.

Model S In August 2008, Tesla announced plans for its Model S, the company's first electric sedan that was reportedly meant to take on the BMW 5 series. In 2012, the Model S finally entered production at a starting price of $58,570. Capable of covering 265 miles between charges, it was honored as the 2013 Car of the Year by Motor Trend magazine. In April 2017, Tesla announced that it surpassed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. car maker. The news was an obvious boon to Tesla, which was looking to ramp up production and release its Model 3 sedan later that year. In September 2019, using what Musk described as a "Plaid powertrain," a Model S set a speed record for four-door sedan at Laguna Seka Raceway in Monterey County, California.

https://www.inverse.com/article/48131-tesla-model-s-is-10-a-look-back-at-its-legacy

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Model 3 The Model 3 was officially launched in March 2019 following extensive production delays. The car was initially priced at $35,000, a much more accessible price point than the $69,500 and up for its Model S and X electric sedans. After initially aiming to produce 5,000 new Model 3 cars per week by December 2017, Musk pushed that goal back to March 2018, and then to June with the start of the new year. The announced delay didn't surprise industry experts, who were well aware of the company's production problems, though some questioned how long investors would remain patient with the process. It also didn't prevent Musk from garnering a radical new compensation package as CEO, in which he would be paid after reaching milestones of growing valuation based on $50 billion increments. By April 2018, with Tesla expected to fall short of first-quarter production forecasts, news surfaced that Musk had pushed aside the head of engineering to personally oversee efforts in that division. In a Twitter exchange with a reporter, Musk said it was important to "divide and conquer" to meet production goals and was "back to sleeping at factory." After signaling that the company would reorganize its management structure, Musk in June announced that Tesla was laying off 9 percent of its workforce, though its production department would remain intact. In an email to employees, Musk explained his decision to eliminate some "duplication of roles" to cut costs, admitting it was time to take serious steps toward turning a profit. The restructuring appeared to pay dividends, as it was announced that Tesla had met its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of June 2018, while churning out another 2,000 Model S sedans and Model X SUVs. "We did it!" Musk wrote in a celebratory email to the company. "What an incredible job by an amazing team." The following February, Musk announced that the company was finally rolling out its standard Model 3. Musk also said that Tesla was shifting to all-online sales and offering customers the chance to return their cars within seven days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Semi-Truck In November 2017, Musk made another splash with the unveiling of the new Tesla Semi and Roadster at the company's design studio. The semi-truck, which entered into production in 2019, boasts 500 miles of range as well as a battery and motors built to last 1 million miles. The truck is set to launch in 2019.

Model Y and Roadster In March 2019, Musk unveiled Tesla’s long-awaited Model Y. The compact crossover, expected for release in 2020, will have a driving range of 300 miles and a 0 to 60 mph of as little as 3.5 seconds. The Roadster, also set to be released in 2020, will become the fastest production car ever made, with a 0 to 60 time of 1.9 seconds.

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5. SolarCity In August 2016, in Musk’s continuing effort to promote and advance sustainable energy and products for a wider consumer base, a $2.6 billion dollar deal was solidified to combine his electric car and solar energy companies. His Tesla Motors Inc. announced an all-stock deal purchase of SolarCity Corp., a company Musk had helped his cousins start in 2006. He is a majority shareholder in each entity. “Solar and storage are at their best when they're combined. As one company, Tesla (storage) and SolarCity (solar) can create fully integrated residential, commercial and grid-scale products that improve the way that energy is generated, stored and consumed,” read a statement on Tesla’s website about the deal. 6. The Boring Company

In January 2017, Musk launched The Boring Company, a company devoted to boring and building tunnels in order to reduce street traffic. He began with a test dig on the SpaceX property in Los Angeles. In late October of that year, Musk posted the first photo of his company's progress to his Instagram page. He said the 500-foot tunnel, which would generally run parallel to Interstate 405, would reach a length of two miles in approximately four months. In May 2019 the company, now known as TBC, landed a $48.7 million contract from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to build an underground Loop system to shuttle people around the Las Vegas Convention Center. Elon Musk is a role model whom we should consider and embrace a few of his qualities in our lives so that we can be the Change. Mithun H S

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Compiled by: Akshatha, Vaibhav Bhansali, Vishnu M S

Guided by: Udupi Vikram

Disclaimer -The information included above is a summary of recent developments and is not intended

to be advice on any matter. SURESH & CO. expressly disclaims liability to any person in respect of

anything done in reliance of the contents of these publications. Professional advice should be sought

before acting on any of the information contained in it.

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